I have been Professor of Philosophy at Texas A&M University since 2010, became the George T. and Gladys H. Abell Professor of Liberal Arts in 2019, and joined the newly-convened Environment Faculty in 2024.  Prior to moving to Texas, I studied at Oxford University, UK, both as an undergraduate and a graduate student. After being awarded a doctorate, I worked at universities in England, Scotland and Western Australia, before moving to the US, initially to Washington University in St Louis.

My research interests are in environmental philosophy and ethics, with a particular focus on conservation ethics, animal ethics, and the ethics of emerging technologies. I have practical interests in conservation too, as I co-own a 200 acre ranch in Robertson County, Texas, where we're working to restore wildlife (including the endangered Houston Toad) to what was formerly oak savannah.

My recent research projects included the book Wildlife Ethics: The ethics of wildlife management and conservation (Wiley Blackwell 2023) which was co-authored with an international, interdisciplinary and inspiring team comprising of Bob Fischer, Jordan Hampton, Christian Gamborg and Peter Sandøe. I'm also currently co-PI (with Ron Sandler at Northeastern University as PI) on a National Endowment for the Humanities grant "The Ethics of Conservation Biotechnology: a Conceptual Engineering Approach" Together with Peter Sandøe and Dan Weary, I co-author a monthly Ethics column in the Canadian Veterinary Journal.

I've authored or co-authored a number of books, including  Companion Animal Ethics (Wiley Blackwell 2015) with Peter Sandøe and Sandra Corr, and Animal Ethics in Context (Columbia University Press 2010). I've also edited or co-edited a number of collections, including Linking Ecology and Ethics for a Changing World (Springer, 2014) and with the late, much missed, Gary Varner, a special edition of the Journal of Agricultural and Environmental Ethics on Animals and Engineering in 2018. 

I'm also the author or co-author of more than 100 other publications, in journals ranging from Philosophical Studies and the Journal of Applied Philosophy to Science, The Veterinary Record, Trends in Ecology and Evolution and Poultry Studies. I was the founding editor of the journal Worldviews: Environment, Culture, Religion (Brill Academic Press) and held the position of President of the International Society for Environmental Ethics from 2007-2010. I was co-PI on the NSF grant Genomics and Society from 2012-2016 and served from 2017-2019 on a National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine committee which produced the consensus report Forest Health and Biotechnology: Possibilities and Considerations.