Geoff is a whole organism zoologist at the Natural History Museum, London and he has a particular interest in copepod crustaceans. Copepods are ubiquitous in aquatic systems and multiple lineages of copepods colonized the open pelagic realm, colonized fresh and subterranean waters, and colonized other metazoan phyla as hosts as they repeatedly adopted parasitism as a mode of life. The overarching aim of his research is to understand the drivers generating the patterns of copepod biodiversity on the largest scales. His current focus is primarily on parasites: the repeated evolution of parasitism in copepods provides opportunities to examine the usage of different host taxa and to explore speciation patterns around major host colonization or host switching events.

Geoff has undertaken fieldwork all over the world and has participated in caving expeditions to Easter Island, Vanuatu and Sulawesi. He was elected Fellow of The Royal Society in 1994. His research has been recognised in other awards including: Scientific Medal of the Zoological Society of London (1986) and the Linnean Society medal for Zoology (2003). He has published over 250 scientific papers and has co-authored several books including Copepod Evolution (1991) and An Introduction to Copepod Diversity (2004).

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