D. S. Mills

Profesor Daniel Mills is a practising veterinary surgeon and academic at the University of the University of Lincoln who specialises in the management of problem behaviour and the human-animal bond. He is ranked in the top 1% of cited scientists in all disciplines worldwide. In 2004 he was the first individual to be recognised by the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons as a specialist in veterinary behavioural medicine, and in 2016 was further recognised by them as the first individual to be granted Fellowship status for his contributions to this field. He was also Europe’s first professor of his discipline and has pioneered a scientific transformation of our understanding of companion animal problem behaviour, through the development of what has become known as “the Psychobiological Approach” to clinical animal behaviour. This involves a synthesis of psychology, neuroscience and evolutionary biology to provide a systematic scientific framework for the evaluation of the underlying motivational an emotional state of an animal. He has led the development of a number of instruments to assess personality dimensions in animals which are validated through both behavioural and physiological studies.

He has published around 200 original scientific articles and more than 50 books and chapters.

He is particularly interested in individual differences in behavioura, how we can understand the emotional world of other animals and how it guides their behaviour and relationships with others as well as the impact of animals on society and human health. He frequently advises both specialist and general media on companion animal issues. He runs an audio and YouTube podcast series “What makes you click?”, which features chats with inspirational friends in the field of animal behaviour he has had the benefit of getting to know over the course of his career (https://www.facebook.com/dsmpod). He shares his home with his human family, a rescue cat for rescue tortoises and a lot of fish.