It all started when…

I grew up in rural England where I spent much of my childhood outdoors and in nature. My love for animals was fostered by my family, and I kept many many pets as a child and teenager. I was always fascinated by animal behavior and knew I wanted to study zoology since I was 10, which never wavered. I completed my undergraduate in Zoology and Master’s by Research at the University of Exeter, Cornwall campus, spending 5 years living by the sea. During this time, I specialized in behavioral ecology and studied foraging specialization in banded mongooses. Though I still loved animal behavior, I knew I wanted to move into marine species and spent time honing my diving skills. I saw the advertisement for my PhD when on a diving holiday and knew it was the one for me. I was successful in gaining the position and completed my PhD at Lancaster University in 2024 studying territorial farming damselfish.

My research...

I see myself as a behavioral ecologist in a marine world, applying behavioral theory and lessons learned from terrestrial systems to coral reefs in new and creative ways. My current research explores how fine-scale structural complexity affects coral reef fish across ecological levels – from individual cognition to predator-prey interactions and species distributions. Combining ecological theory with behavioral experiments and emerging technologies, this project aims to provide insights into the resilience of coral reef fish in the face of environmental change and habitat loss. This work lies at the intersection between the Elizabeth Madin Lab and the Geometric Ecology Lab at HIMB, and is co-hosted by the Behavioural Complexity Lab at the University of Lisbon (https://www.behecoevo.org). This project is supported by an International Human Frontier Science Program Postdoctoral Fellowship.

What I've written...

My peer-reviewed publications are listed here. Feel free to email me for copies of any of them. 

Contact me…

Email:

ces4@hawaii.edu; cesheppard@ciencias.ulisboa.pt

Address:

Hawaii Institute of Marine Biology
University of Hawaii at Manoa
PO Box 1346 (for US Postal Service)
46-007 Lilipuna Road (For all other carriers)
Kaneohe, HI 96744 USA

Office:

New Pauly Building, Room 105