My main research interest has been the operation of sense organs and their role in the control of behavioural and physiological mechanisms, primarily in insects. My work includes the coding of taste information by the contact chemoreceptive hairs on fly mouthparts, particularly to complex stimuli; the development of computer programs to analyse the multi-unit nerve recordings typical in insect chemoreceptive studies; computer modelling of food selection and feeding behaviour in mosquitoes; and studies on the stimuli that determine feeding in the blood-sucking bug Rhodnius prolixus, and the mechanics and behaviour involved in that feeding.

After nearly 50 years combining research, teaching and academic administration, I will be retiring in 2013, and am no longer taking graduate students.