天美视频

By Dr Ellen Williams

Hello and Happy New Year, I genuinely cannot believe we are into 2026!

Here in the Animal Behaviour and Welfare Research Group we have been lucky enough to recently be joined by three new members of staff (one is a familiar face who has been offered a lecturing role at Harper), FOUR PhD students and one MRes student. We wanted to start the new year off with a bang and introduce them and their projects. Some of them are working with people in varying capacities so may have projects you can help out with – keep your eyes peeled for details as their projects continue!

So without further ado, it is my pleasure to introduce, our new members of staff....

Dr Hannah Shaw

Hannah joined the university in 2020, right before COVID hit, and so very quickly became an expert at online teaching and virtual laboratories! She completed her PhD with the University of Edinburgh at the Moredun Research Institute in veterinary parasitology. Her research looks at how protozoan parasites spread, survive, and impact livestock. Her PhD explored how these infections influence calf health and farm productivity and how better biosecurity and management can make a real difference. Today, her work links disease prevention, animal welfare, public health and sustainability. She’s particularly interested in how we can keep animals healthier by stopping infections before they start by exploring preventative measures for those parasites proving difficult to tackle!

Alongside her research, Hannah is a fellow of the Higher Education Academy, teaching and supporting students throughout their time at university. Outside of work, Hannah is a member of the local pantomime group and a keen DnD player!

Dr Juliana Garcia Alvarez

Juliana is an animal behaviour and welfare scientist, specialising in dairy cows and calves. After completing her medical degree focussing on human anaesthesia in her home country (Colombia), Juliana decided to change her career path and follow her passion for animals. She completed a BSc(Hons) in Animal Behaviour and Welfare and immediately went on to study for her PhD focussing on improving the welfare of dairy calves using a bovine appeasing pheromone. She successfully defended her thesis this year and has joined the University as a lecturer since September 2025. She is committed to transmit her passion for animal welfare to future generations and continue her research career focusing on improving the quality of life of farm animals.

Helen Morrell

Helen is an applied animal health and welfare scientist with a specialist background in veterinary physiotherapy. She completed her BSc (Hons) in Animal Science at Newcastle University before going on to undertake an MSc in Veterinary Physiotherapy at Harper Adams — a qualification that shaped the next stage of her career, first in clinical practice and later in academia.

Before joining Harper Adams in 2015, Helen ran her own successful veterinary physiotherapy practice, where she specialised in performance optimisation for elite equine athletes. Working alongside national and international competitors gave her a deep understanding of equine musculoskeletal function, rider–horse dynamics, and the practical realities of supporting high-performance animals through training, injury, and recovery.

Her research interests centre on musculoskeletal health, rehabilitation, and the scientific evaluation of therapeutic modalities. She has worked in several novel and interdisciplinary areas, including stem cell culture to assess the efficacy of electrotherapeutic approaches, and the use of thermal imaging as a tool for clinical assessment and welfare monitoring. She is particularly interested in how evidence-based physiotherapy can work to support long-term health and welfare outcomes.

Outside academia, Helen is a lifelong dog and horse lover, an ex-competitive eventer, and a qualified riding instructor. In a previous life, she also founded and ran several successful small businesses — experience she now draws upon when supporting students and graduates who are launching their own animal-care enterprises.

Fun fact: Helen has been on television four times. Although unfortunately none of the appearances involved a baking competition, racing across the world or dancing, she does have a cameo in South Africa, helping to move a fully grown male lion on a stretcher. Not quite the usual day’s work, even for an animal scientist.

And our fabulous post-graduates...

Alice King

Alice has recently joined Harper Adams having spent the last four years at ARU Writtle (formerly Writtle University College). At Writtle she completed a BSc (Hons) in Animal Management (Pet Behaviour and Welfare) and then an MSc in Animal Welfare and Conservation with a research focus on animal welfare in animal assisted education. She is now excited to continue her research into human-animal interactions and animal welfare through her PhD, investigating individuality in guinea pigs used for teaching purposes in HE educational units.

Supervised by Dr Ellen Williams and Dr Holly Vickery, the project aims to create a validated method for measuring guinea pig personality in teaching settings. Traditional methods of personality capture such as preference testing will be combined with more novel techniques such as AI algorithms to track behaviour and spatial use. Welfare indicators (behavioural and physiological) will then be collected and compared between personality profiles to identify potential risk factors linked to personality. The final phase of the project will examine the impact of targeted welfare mitigation strategies on different personality profiles. This project will contribute to the growing body of evidence for individualistic approaches to animal welfare improvement.

Outside of academia, Alice enjoys knitting, rugby, and attempting to train her Syrian hamster, Bandit!

Giorgia Cavalli

Giorgia is an MRes student who has just returned to university after a long break. After graduating with a BSc (Hons) in Animal Science with Farm Livestock Production, she began working in the dairy industry. She gained experience in both intensive and extensive farming systems in New Zealand and Scotland and worked as a Livestock Research Technician at 天美视频 and the University of Liverpool. Over the years, she developed a strong interest in calves and youngstock, which led her to return to Harper Adams, this time as a student. She is supervised by Dr Gemma Charlton and Dr Holly Vickery, and her project focuses on exploring enrichment options for heifers, addressing a clear research gap concerning this category of cattle. She hopes to gain valuable knowledge that can be readily applied to farms.

In her free time Giorgia loves wild swimming, especially in icy waters.

Sophie Rabone

Sophie Rabone joined the university’s postgraduate research community after completing her undergraduate degree in Applied Zoology at 天美视频, graduating in 2024. Now undertaking a PhD under the supervision of Dr Ellen Williams and Dr John Reade, Sophie is focusing on a subject that brings together her interests in ornithology, conservation, and behavioural ecology.

Sophie’s research is concerned with behavioural adaptations and personality of White Stork within reintroduction contexts, with a focus on stakeholder perceptions.

Sophie’s project aims to understand if and how behavioural traits influence the birds’ ability to adapt, thrive, and integrate within reintroduction sites. Alongside this, she is exploring the perceptions of local stakeholders, recognising that community engagement and support are essential ingredients in any successful wildlife recovery initiative.

By linking animal behaviour with human perspectives, Sophie hopes her work will help guide ongoing and future reintroduction schemes, ultimately contributing to more effective conservation strategies and healthier wildlife populations.

 Ffion Lewis

Ffion is a PhD student supervised by Dr Emma Bleach, Dr Gemma Charlton and Dr James McCaughern. Previous to this, Ffion completed an MRes Studentship at Harper supervised by Dr Annabelle Beaver, investigating the effects of early vs. delayed separation of dairy cows and their calves. The MRes project was part of a wider international partnership project with Cornell University in New York, funded by the United States Department of Agriculture. During the course, Ffion had the opportunity to help with data collection at the Teaching Dairy Barn at Cornell University, to attend the American Dairy Science Association annual conference in Kentucky and to present her work at the Animal Welfare Research Network annual conference at the University of Bristol. Upon completion, Ffion began a PhD concerned with the weaning of dairy calves, investigating best-practice weaning strategies. The aims of the project are to evaluate concentrate and forage feeding strategies and to identify and assess indicators of ‘readiness’ to wean, including measures of productivity, behavioural patterns, metabolomic indicators and agri-tech innovations. The feeding strategies and indicators will promote and be indicative of calf digestive system development, respectively. Additionally, longer-term effects of the strategies on heifer growth and development will be investigated.

Coming from a sheep farm in North Wales and working on numerous farms, Ffion’s interests are focused on the health and welfare of ruminant species. In her free time, Ffion enjoys walking with her sheepdog Buddy, riding horses and looking after her flock of sheep.

Lee Johnson

Lee has recently returned to Harper as a PhD student, having graduated with a Master’s degree in Entomology in 2023.

Supervised by Dr Heather Campbell and Dr Ellen Williams, Lee's project is titled “Beyond Vertebrates: Welfare standards, challenges and indicators for terrestrial invertebrates in UK Zoological collections and beyond”. Building on a growing body of scientific research that suggests many invertebrates have cognitive and behavioural abilities more advanced than previously recorded, it aims to assess the current animal welfare framework with specific reference to terrestrial invertebrates in captivity, develop validated indicators of welfare for key taxonomic groups and establish a framework for effectively assessing, monitoring and improving welfare for invertebrates that can be used by zoo collections across the UK and beyond. Passionate about animals of all shapes and sizes, he hopes the project can contribute to a wider appreciation of all our little friends without backbones and add to the emerging conversations about animal behaviour and welfare that are taking place across a multitude of understudied and underappreciated groups.