Dr Marion England

Marion studied for a BSc Hons in Human Sciences at UCL, followed by an MSc in Conservation Science at Imperial College. Her Master’s thesis explored the relationship between carotenoid pigmentation in tail feathers and disease susceptibility in the greenfinch, Carduelis chloris. She completed her PhD at the Animal and Plant Health Agency where she investigated the risk of Crimean-Congo haemorrhagic fever, a tick-borne virus, entering Great Britain using a combination of field work and mathematical modelling.

Marion joined The Pirbright Institute in 2013 to run the UK Culicoides Reference Laboratory which carries out national surveillance of Culicoides biting midges. She currently leads the Vector Ecology group, which conducts research into vector biology and behaviour and how these impact on disease transmission. She has a long-standing collaboration with the Zoological Society of London researching vector populations in zoos. Marion enjoys lecturing at the University of Surrey and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and regularly advises Defra on Culicoides and bluetongue virus risk. Additionally, Marion is the Athena Swan Lead for Pirbright and is Editor-in-Chief of Medical and Veterinary Entomology.