William Bensted-Smith has been with the Marine Invasive Species Programme since November of 2019 and principally focuses on the physical oceanographic side it. His work centres on predicting the propagation of introduced species within the Galapagos Marine Reserve through particle tracking models of their larvae or seeds, as well as analysing the highest risk possible foreign invasion routes due to current movements in the Eastern Tropical Pacific. Furthermore, he is also involved in the Subtidal Ecological Monitoring of the Marine Reserve.

He completed his undergraduate degree of BSc Physics with Hons. at the University of Exeter in 2018 and continued his studies with a MSc in Physical Oceanography at Bangor University the following year. His MSc thesis was based on recreating the historical spread of an invasive barnacle species in the Irish Sea using a particle tracking model, from which the skills learned have proved very useful in his current field of work.