Prof Iain Barber BSc (Hons) (Leicester), PhD (Glasgow), SFHEA

Prof Iain Barber

Head of Life Sciences

Head of Department - Life Sciences

Department of Life Sciences

Contact Details

Profile

Iain Barber joined Aberystwyth University as Head of the Department of Life Sciences in November 2022, where he has overall responsibility for a broad academic teaching and research portfolio across the biological, agricultural, animal, veterinary, aquatic and ecological sciences as well as human biology, health, sport & exercise science, and nursing. Professor Barber is an animal biologist and behavioural ecologist with specialist expertise in the fields of host-parasite interactions, fish behavioural ecology and animal personality research, with a particular interest in questions that lie at the intersection of these fields, and how these are impacted in changing environments. His research programme employs a wide range of controlled laboratory experiments, field work and molecular genetic techniques.

Before joining Aberystwyth, Professor Barber was the Deputy Dean of the School of Animal, Rural and Environmental Sciences at Nottingham Trent University (2017-2022). Prior to that he served as the Deputy Head of the Department of Neuroscience, Psychology and Behaviour (2015-17) and as Head of the Department of Biology (2011-15) at the University of Leicester. He previously held a lectureship at Aberystwyth University (2004-06), and from 1998-2004 held successive independent research fellowships, funded by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences (at the Kristineberg Marine Research Station, Sweden) and the NERC (at the Universities of Glasgow and Aberystwyth). Professor Barber holds a BSc (Hons) in Biological Sciences from the University of Leicester and a PhD in Fish Behaviour and Parasitology from the University of Glasgow. In 2010 he was the recipient of the FSBI medal, which is awarded in recognition of ‘exceptional advances in the study of fish biology and/or fisheries science’. He was awarded a Senior Fellowship of the Higher Education Academy in 2016.

Publications

Barber, I, Hirst, AG & Smith, C 2023, 'The challenges faced by fish in a dynamic world', Journal of Fish Biology, vol. 103, no. 4, pp. 749-751. 10.1111/jfb.15545
Mainwaring, MC, Stoddard, MC, Barber, I, Deeming, DC & Hauber, ME 2023, 'The evolutionary ecology of nests: A cross-taxon approach', Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, vol. 378, no. 1884, 20220136. 10.1098/rstb.2022.0136
Tilley, C, Sneddon, L, Mallon, E, Barber, I & Norton, W 2023, 'Validating skin swabbing as a refined technique to collect DNA from small-bodied fish species', F1000Research, vol. 12, 28. 10.12688/f1000research.122004.1, 10.17605/OSF.IO/6MD5V, 10.6084/m9.figshare.21603024
Grecias, L, Hebert, FO, Alves, VA, Barber, I & Aubin-Horth, N 2020, 'Host behaviour alteration by its parasite: from brain gene expression to functional test', Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, vol. 287, no. 1938, 20202252. 10.1098/rspb.2020.2252
Dingemanse, NJ, Barber, I & Dochtermann, NA 2020, 'Non-consumptive effects of predation: does perceived risk strengthen the genetic integration of behaviour and morphology in stickleback?', Ecology Letters, vol. 23, no. 1, pp. 107-118. 10.1111/ele.13413
More publications on the Research Portal