Dr Rhys Jones is an Associate Professor of Evolutionary Biology at Cardiff University School of Biosciences, a Russell Group Institution. He is author of ‘Becoming Dr Jones’ and ‘Being Dr Jones’ (Headline / Hachette). He is also a BAFTA nominated (Best Presenter) television presenter for BBC One, Amazon Prime, +Disney, and Discovery channels. He delivers inspirational speeches across the world from Somaliland to China and beyond.

Rhys completed his PhD on “British Reptile Conservation: Phylogeography and Translocation studies” in 2009 following an MPhil in Medical Molecular Entomology and a BSc (Hons) in Zoology. He is a Principal Ecologist, a Fellow of the Linnean Society of London, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Biology, a Member of the Chartered Institute of Ecology and Environmental Management, and a Chartered Environmentalist.

His diverse research interests and experience has seen him called upon by DEFRA, Interpol, numerous Military and Police forces, and Wildlife agencies across the world in the fight against wildlife crime. In addition to appearing as an expert witness in Crown Court, he also undertakes anatomical and genetic analysis, ecological assessment, and field tracking techniques, to present empirical evidence sufficient to secure successful wildlife crime convictions. Most notably in assisting South Wales Police secure successful prosecutions for offences under section 14 of the Wildlife and Countryside Act (1981), the first of their kind in British legal history, a feat not achieved since.

His BBC television career includes Rhys’s Network Primetime BBC One television series ‘Rhys Jones’s Wildlife Patrol’ attracted a viewing audience of 10 million (~2.5 million per programme) across the UK, and ran for three series. Rhys Jones’s Wildlife Patrol now airs across the world on Amazon Prime. Other BBC series include ‘Rhys to the Rescue’, and guest appearances in both Chris Packham’s ‘Nature’s Calendar’ and Sir David Attenborough’s ‘Saving Planet Earth’. He also presented the Royal Welsh Show on BBC Wales between 2007-2015. Most recently Rhys has recorded documentaries for Disney +, National Geographic and the Smithsonian Channel, including ‘Top Ten Biggest Beasts Ever’. He also regularly appeared in series one of the Discovery Channel’s ‘The Alaska Triangle’ and ‘British Treasure, American Gold’. Other television appearances include ABC’s ‘The Science Show’, network BBC Two Christmas Celebrity University Challenge and ITV Coast and Country.

Rhys’s radio works include his BBC Wales radio series ‘My date with Death’ and podcasts for the Guardian. He regularly appears on radio alongside the likes of Simon Mayo on Drive time BBC Radio 2, Cerys Mathews on Radio 6 Music and Adam Rutherford’s Inside Science on BBC Radio 4. He is a freelance science writer with articles published in The Independent, and The New Statesman.

Rhys is the Director of ‘Dr Rhys Jones Ltd’, a media company specialising in bringing science to a wider audience, producing projects both in the UK and across the world. Rhys has worked throughout Africa including Egypt, Algeria, Somaliland, Western Sahara, Uganda and Tanzania, and worked extensively throughout Kenya for almost three decades.

He has been the host of Wales Comic Con for 10 years, interviewing exciting celebrities from stage and screen from all walks of Sci-Fi and Horror genres.