Forschung

Hauptarbeitsgebiete: Pflanzenschutz (Sicherheit und Effektivität von Pflanzenschutzmitteln); chemische Ökologie (Interaktionen zwischen Insekten und Pflanzen; chemische Charakterisierung von Molekularstrukturen, die die Entwicklung und das Verhalten von Insekten und anderen Organismen beeinflussen; evolutionäre Antwort von Insekten auf Umweltstress); Biochemie und Molekularbiologie von sekundären Pflanzenmetaboliten (Entwicklung von Pheromonen und Semiochemikalien zur Kontrolle von Pflanzenbeständen)

Career

• since 2010 Michael Elliott Distinguished Research Fellow
• 2010-2014 Scientific Leader of Chemical Ecology, Rothamsted Research, UK
• 2007-2010 Scientific Director, Centre for Sustainable Pest and Disease Management (concurrently with heading the Department of Biological Chemistry), Rothamsted Research, UK
• 1976-1983 Principal Scientific Officer, Department of Insecticides and Fungicides, Rothamsted, UK; Experimental Station:  Leading and coordinating studies on semiochemical aspects of insect chemical ecology
• 1972-1976 Senior scientist, Chemistry Department, Brewing Research Foundation, Redhill, Surrey, UK; Chemical studies on flavour active components of hops and malt
• 1970-1972 Postdoctoral fellowship, Institute of Science and Technology, Synthesis and potochemistry of perfluoroalkylpyridazines, University of Manchester, UK; Professor R.N. Haszeldine, FRS

Projects

• 2013-2017 PI, Grant BB/I002278/1, Enhancing diversity in UK wheat through a public sector pre-breeding programme (joint project), BBSRC
• 2012-2016 PI, LoLa, Grant BB/J001821/1, The interplay of rodent behaviour and semiochemistry: from scientific principles to control strategies, BBSRC
• 2012-2015 ZonMw TOP grant (Netherlands), Chemical signalling of malaria parasites - call for transmission?
• 2011-2015 PI, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Achieving sustainable Striga control for poor farmers in Africa
• 2011-2015 PI, EU, Pesticide use and risk reduction in European farming systems with integrated pest management:  PURE
• 2011-2014 PI, Grant BB/H017011/1, BBSRC/EPSRC, Design of bioactive sesquiterpene-based chemical signals with enhanced stability, BBSRC
• 2011-2014 PI, Leverhulme-Royal Society Africa Award, Chemical ecology and integrated pest management of the banana weevil, Cosmopolites sordidus, in Ghana
• 2011-2013 PI, EU, Adaptation and dissemination of the 'Push Pull' technology (ADOPT): a conservation agriculture approach for smallholder cereal-livestock production in drier areas to withstand climate change
• 2011-2013 PI, McKnight Foundation, Developing an integrated management approach for Napier stunt disease in East Africa
• 2010-2013 PI, Grant BB/H009493/ 1, Monitoring and intervention strategies for bluetongue virus epidemics in rural India, BBSRC
• 2010-2013 PI Grant BB/H001700/ 1, Elucidating the chemical ecology of belowground plant to plant communication, BBSRC
• 2008-2013 PI, Grant BB/G004781/1, A new generation of insect resistant GM crops: transgenic wheat synthesising the aphid alarm signal, BBSRC

Functions

• since 2015 Chair of External Advisory Board, School of Chemistry, Cardiff University
• since 2015 Chair of Technical committee on push–pull technology for icipe’s IBCARP Steering Committee
• since 2015 Member of the Committee for the SABMiller Award
• 2015 Presenter of expert evidence for the Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology (POST) to the House of Lords on Genetically Modified Insects and Disease Control
• 2015 Member of the Society for Experimental Biology (SEB)
• since 2014 Trustee of BCPC
• since 2014 Member of the Agroscope Scientific Board, Switzerland
• 2014-2016 President, Royal Entomological Society
• 2014-2015 Member of GM Science Update panel to the Council for Science and Technology 2014/2015
• 2014 Panel Member, Research Excellence Framework
• since 2013 Member, DFID Research Advisory Group (RAG)
• 2013-2016 Panel Chair, Royal Society-DFID Capacity Building Initiative
• 2013 Member, review panel for grant proposals submitted to the Global Innovation Initiative (GII) for the British Council USA
• 2013 Reviewer, Retrospective study of the Rockerfeller program on rice biotechnology research, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation
• since 2012 Member, BBSRC Pool of Experts, Responsive Mode Grants
• since 2012 Member, Advisory Board, Integrated Striga Management in Africa (ISMA) project in Nigeria and Kenya, funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
• 2011 and 2012 Chair, Royal Society Pfizer Award Seminar
• since 2011 Assessor, Grants For Research and Development, Technology Strategy Board
• since 2011 Member, Institute for Life Sciences External Advisory Committee, University of Southampton, UK
• since 2010 Member, HEFCE REF 2014, sub-panel 5, Biological Sciences
• since 2010 Member of Board of Trustees, International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA)
• since 2010 Member, Informal Research Advisory Group (iRAG) on research policy, DFID
• since 2010 Expert Advisor, National Strategy on Climate Change and Low Carbon Development, for the government of Rwanda, chaired by Sir David King, Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment, University of Oxford, UK
• since 2010 Chair, Royal Society Summer Science Exhibition Committee (and member from 2008)
• since 2009 Member, Scientific Advisory Panel Environmental and Social Ecology of Human Infectious Diseases (ESEI) initiative, Phase I Catalyst Grants and Phase II Research Consortia grants
• since 2007 Chair, Scientific Advisory Board, Max Planck Society, Institute of Chemical Ecology, Jena, Germany
• since 2007 Chair, International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology (icipe) Governing Council, Nairobi, Kenya
• 2007-2009 Member, Royal Society Sectional Committee 9 (and from 1997 - 2000)
• 2006-2007 Chair, Royal Society Working Group on Development for Biofuels
• 1996 Expert, committee for evaluation of INCO-Copernicus, European Commission DGXII
• 1995 President, International Society of Chemical Ecology (Vice-President 1994, Councillor 1991 - 2000)
• 1991-2000 Councillor, International Society of Chemical Ecology

Honours and Memberships

• 2014 National Academy of Sciences (US) Foreign Associate, for his role as “an international driving force in the science and application of chemical ecology and in fostering advances in integrated pest management and agricultural sustainability”
• 2012 International Congress of Entomology Certificate of Distinction, awarded at the XXIV International Congress of Entomology, Daegu, Korea
• 2011 Millennium Award, ASSOCHAM’s 9th Knowledge Millennium Summit, New Delhi, India (and Millennium Address speaker)
• 2011 Bachelor of the University of Surrey, UK; honoris causa
• 2010 Honorary Member of the Chemical Society of Ethiopia (CSE)
• 2010 Honorary Fellowship of the Royal Entomological Society
• 2010 Michael Elliott Distinguished Research Fellow
• 2008 Wolf Foundation Prize in Agriculture
• 2008 Honorary DSc, University of Aberdeen, UK
• 2005 Foreign Member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Agriculture and Forestry
• 2004 Honorary Life Membership, the Association of Applied Biologists CBE, for Services to Biological Chemistry
• 2002 International Society of Chemical Ecology Medal
• 2001 Member of the German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina
• 1996 Fellow of the Royal Society
• 1995 The Rank Prize, Nutrition and Crop Husbandry
• 1991 Honorary Professor, University of Nottingham, UK