Professor Nicholas Roberts

I gained my first degree, an MPhys in Physics and Astrophysics, in 1999 at the University of Manchester. I stayed on in Manchester and completed a PhD in the Liquid Crystal Physics Group with Prof Helen Gleeson OBE in 2003. The focus of my work was on optical studies of model biological liquid crystal systems relating to vertebrate photoreceptors. During my PhD, I conducted much of my biological research at University of Victoria, BC, Canada.

After a year as a post-doc back in Manchester, I was awarded a Leverhulme Trust Early Career fellowship to conduct research on vertebrate polarization vision. In 2006, I was awarded an EPSRC Life Science Interface fellowship to work on optical design in vertebrate and invertebrate visual systems, splitting my time between the new Photon Science Institute at Manchester and Queens University in Canada. In Oct 2009, I started a 5 year BBSRC David Philips Fellowship based in the Ecology of Vision Group here at Bristol. In 2012, I was appointed as a Senior Research Fellow in the school, and in 2013 promoted to the position Reader. In 2015 I took on the role of Deputy Head of School and School's Director of Research. In 2017 was promoted to Professor of Sensory Ecology. I am currently the Head of the School of Biological Sciences.

Outside of the University, I am the deputy chair of the BBSRC's Committee E, and set up the national mentoring scheme for the BBSRC Discovery Fellowships.  

Research Projects

• How animals (fish, stomatopods, octopus, cuttlefish, dragonflies, bees) see the polarization of light.

• Understanding the importance of colour, polarization, and intensity as information for different visual tasks.

• New optics - how animals use structural optics to control the flow of light in ways humans haven't yet thought of.

• How to hide in the open ocean - the optics of silvery camouflage.

• The impact of light pollution on animal visual ecology.

Selected Publications 

• Feller, K.D., Wilby, D., Jacucci, G., Vignolini, S., Mantell, J., Wardill, T., Cronin, T.W. and Roberts, N.W. 2019 Long-wavelength reflecting filters found in the larval retinas of one mantis shrimp family (Nannosquillidae) Current Biology 29 (18), P3101-3108.E4, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2019.07.070

• Smithers, S., Roberts, N.W. and How, M.J. 2019 Parallel processing of polarization and intensity information in fiddler crab vision Science Advances 5, (8), eaax3572
  doi: 10.1126/sciadv.aax3572

• Foster, J.J.,Temple, S.E., How, M.J., Daly, I.M., Sharkey, C.R. Wilby, D. and Roberts N.W.. 2018. Polarization Vision: Overcoming Challenges of Working with a Property of Light We Barely See. The Science of Nature. 105(3-4) 27. doi:10.1007/s00114-018-1551-3

• Innes C. Cuthill, et al. 2017 The biology of color. Science 357 (6350): eaan0221 doi: 10.1126/science.aan0221

• Daly, I.M., How, M.J., Partridge J.C., Temple S.E., Marshall N.J., Cronin T.W. and Roberts, N.W. 2016 Dynamic polarization vision in mantis shrimps. Nature Communications 7:12140. doi: 10.1038/ncomms12140

• How, M.J., Christy, J., Temple, S. E., Hemmi, J. M., Marshall, N. J., Roberts, N.W. 2015  Target detection is enhanced by polarization vision in a fiddler crab. Current Biology. 25, 3069–3073.

• Foster, J.J., Sharkey, C.R., Gaworska, A.V.A., Roberts, N.W., Whitney, H.M. & Partridge, J.C. 2014, 'Bumblebees Learn Polarization Patterns'. Current Biology, vol 24., pp. 1415-1420.

• Jordan, TM, Partridge, JC & Roberts, NW 2012, ‘Non-polarizing broadband multilayer reflectors in fish’. Nature Photonics, vol 6., pp. 759-763

• Roberts, N, T-S, C, N.J., M & T.W., C 2009, ‘A biological quarter-wave retarder with excellent achromaticity in the visible wavelength region’. Nature Photonics, vol 3., pp. 641 - 644

• Temple, S, Pignatelli, V, Cook, T, How, M, Chiou, T-S, Roberts, N & Marshall, N 2012, ‘High-resolution polarisation vision in a cuttlefish’. Current Biology, vol 22., pp. R121 - R122

• Grigorenko, A, Roberts, N, Dickinson, M & Zhang, Y 2008, ‘Nanometric optical tweezers based on nanostructured substrates’. Nature Photonics, vol 2., pp. 365 - 370

• Roberts, N, Porter, M & Cronin, T 2011, ‘The molecular basis of mechanisms underlying polarization vision’.Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, vol 366., pp. 627 - 637

• Jewell, S, Vukusic, P & Roberts, N 2007, ‘Circularly polarized color reflection in the beetle Plusiotis boucardi’. New Journal Physics, vol 9., pp. 99

Full publication list - here