Dr Paul Bates
Director

Paul read geography at Oxford University (1980-1983) before undertaking his PhD (1983-1987) at the Harrison Institute and Royal Holloway College, University of London. His studies focused on rodent taxonomy and zoogeography, with particular reference to East Africa and Asia.  In 1987, he joined the Institute full time and worked with David Harrison revising his monograph The Mammals of Arabia, which was published as a second edition in 1991. Later he prepared a monograph on the Bats of the Indian Subcontinent. This was based on extensive field studies in India and Sri Lanka as well as an exhaustive review of the literature and existing museum collections [more information]. It was published in 1997. Meanwhile, he also undertook a series of studies of the small mammal fauna of eastern African, with field research in Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania and Malawi. 

Since 1999, his researches have primarily focused on the bat fauna of Southeast Asia with collaborative ongoing projects (funded by a range of national and international donors, initiatives and charities) in Myanmar, Thailand, Cambodia, Lao PDR, and Vietnam [more information]. In addition, he has facilitated a number of highly successful exchanges of students between institutions in Southeast Asia and co-hosted many international workshops and two international conferences in Thailand and Ethiopia.  Over the years he has been published extensively on Arabian, African and Asian mammals, particularly bats and rodents and has been fortunate to have authored/ co-authored the description of six mammals (all bats) new to science including two from Cambodia and one from Madagascar, Myanmar, Sulawesi and Vietnam respectively.[more information]