Professor Nicholas Roberts
MPhys (Manc.), PhD(Manc.)
Current positions
Head of School
School of Biological SciencesProfessor of Sensory Ecology
School of Biological Sciences
Contact
Press and media
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Research interests
My resaerch spans many aspects of visual ecology and animal vision. I am particularly interested in the impacts of light pollution on an aniaml's behaviour and new optiocal principles that animals exploit for visually guided behaviour.
My lab has pioneered and uses several novel optical and behavioural techniques. My work adopts a broad intra- and inter-disciplinary approach, using a combination of physics based techniques (microspectrophotometry, laser tweezing, optical modelling and X-ray scattering) and behavioural studies (operant conditioning and novel optomotor techniques). Ultimately, I want to understand how visual information helps guide aspects of animal behaviour.
Projects and supervisions
Research projects
Life In Colour version 2 - audience of the future
Principal Investigator
Managing organisational unit
School of Biological SciencesDates
01/06/2019 to 30/08/2019
Seeing the world in a different light - discovering how animals see polarized light
Principal Investigator
Managing organisational unit
School of Biological SciencesDates
01/01/2011 to 01/01/2014
Discovering Polarization Vision in Reef Fish
Principal Investigator
Managing organisational unit
School of Biological SciencesDates
26/05/2010 to 26/06/2010
David Phillips Fellowship for Nicholas Roberts
Principal Investigator
Managing organisational unit
School of Biological SciencesDates
01/10/2009 to 01/10/2014
Thesis supervisions
Publications
Selected publications
01/11/2012Non-polarizing broadband multilayer reflectors in fish
Nature Photonics
A biological quarter-wave retarder with excellent achromaticity in the visible wavelength region
Nature Photonics
The molecular basis of mechanisms underlying polarization vision
Philosophical Transactions B: Biological Sciences
Nanometric optical tweezers based on nanostructured substrates
Nature Photonics
Recent publications
03/10/2024Fiddler crabs (Afruca tangeri) detect second-order motion in both intensity and polarization
Communications Biology
Multiple axes of visual system diversity in Ithomiini, an ecologically diverse tribe of mimetic butterflies
Journal of Experimental Biology
Non-celestial polarization vision in arthropods
Journal of comparative physiology. A, Neuroethology, sensory, neural, and behavioral physiology
The spectral composition of a white light influences its attractiveness to Culex pipiens mosquitoes
Ecology and Evolution
Insect visual sensitivity to long wavelengths enhances colour contrast of insects against vegetation
Scientific Reports