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Biography

Ben is a Principal Curator at the Natural History Museum, London, where he is responsible for part of the collection of 80 million specimens. His research focuses on computer vision and high throughput genomics for biodiversity discovery. He leads part of the Horizon Europe funded Biodiversity Genomics Europe project, sequencing modern and century old specimens, to fill gaps in DNA reference libraries and enable DNA-based identification for all.

Biography

Heather Ritchie-Parker is a Research Scientist at the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland (RZSS) where she works within the WildGenes team. Her work focuses on providing bioinformatic analysis of genetic data to government agencies, conservation charities, and zoos across the world. Heather works across a wide variety of species of conservation concern, including the Northern rockhopper penguin (Endangered, IUCN Red List), Rote Island snake-necked turtle (Critically Endangered, IUCN Red List), and pine hoverfly (Critically Endangered, UK Red Data Book).