Amy Molotoks is a Research Associate at SEI’s York Centre and is part of the Sustainable Consumption and Production team. She works on the GCRF Trade Hub project which involves examining the impact of agricultural commodity trade on biodiversity.

She holds a BSc in Environmental Science from the University of Southampton and an MSc in Biodiversity and Conservation from the University of Exeter. Amy also completed a PhD in Biological Sciences at the University of Aberdeen as part of the Environmental Modelling group. Her research focused on spatially mapping the global impacts of future cropland expansion on various biodiversity metrics, carbon storage and food security in order to examine trade-off hotspots. This involved using a range of model projections and future socio-economic scenarios, modelling the subsequent effects of land use change by incorporating FAO statistics and exploiting high resolution spatially resolved datasets. She also conducted a local case study in rural Madagascar examining local perspectives of conflict between biodiversity conservation, food security and environmental beliefs.

During the PhD, she had the opportunity to participate in a three month professional internship which was completed with the Scottish Schools Education Research Centre (SSERC) to develop new materials for teaching Environmental Science.

Prior to her PhD, Amy participated in a three month science communication and public engagement internship with the Eden Project. She then completed a nine month ERASMUS placement with a research station in Portugal working as an ecological research assistant.