Our Team
Alex Wilson
Jez Smith
Jez is a co-director and the lead tutor on the Data Analysis in R statistics courses. He has over six years of experience teaching statistics to students of all stages from Foundation year undergraduates to Emeritus professors. He has previously worked as a lecturer at the University of South Wales.
Whilst in the UK Jez is part of the data analysis team publishing on topics such as breeding ecology of woodland birds, movement of civets and diet of otters.
Jim is co-director of Eco-explore as well as a coordinating lecturer for science and the environment at the Lifelong Learning division at Cardiff University.
Jim's work extends beyond academia, as he collaborates closely with conservation initiatives and develops tools for practitioners in monitoring and land management. Through this collaborative work, Jim bridges the gap between theoretical knowledge and applied practice, ensuring that his expertise in spatial analysis and species survey significantly benefits land management and conservation strategies.
Rob Thomas
Rob is co-director of Eco-explore and a lecturer at Cardiff University, specialising in bird behaviour, ecology and data analysis. He is a keen birdwatcher and goes birding almost every day – mainly at his local reservoirs – though he also enjoys exploring new habitats overseas.
Rob runs regular courses on data analysis and is lead author of our guidebook to “Data Analysis with R Statistical Software”. His favourite animal is the storm petrel; smallest of the Atlantic seabirds, which is the subject of Rob’s new book The Storm-petrels.
Jim Vafidis
Alex is managing director of Eco-explore, as well as being an ecological consultant, chair of Cardiff Bat Group and a member of Valleys and Monmouthshire Bat Groups, and all-round naturalist. She completed her PhD on visual constraints on bird behaviour in 2009 at Cardiff University, and before that she studied zoology at the University of Liverpool. Her favourite animal is the robin, which was the main species studied in her PhD. She is keen to explore how humans impact wildlife, in particular how artificial light at night can affect bats and invertebrates.