Professor Ian Crute

Ian Crute obtained a first class honours degree in Botany and a PhD in plant pathology from the University of Newcastle upon Tyne. He then spent 13 years as a research leader in plant pathology at what was then the National Vegetable Research Station at Wellesbourne (now Horticulture Research International). His research was concerned with the genetics of plant-pathogen interactions and the studies of fungicide resistance during which he worked in close collaboration with plant breeders.

In 1986 he went to the University of Wisconsin in Madison, USA on a Fulbright Fellowship to work on the genetics of resistance in brassicas to fungal pathogens using ‘rapid cycling’ brassicas as a research tool. In 1987 he returned to England and moved to HRI East Malling as head of the Crop and Environment Protection department where his management responsibilities covered plant pathology and entomology research on perennial horticultural crops. At East Malling he established a research group to work on the pathology of Arabidopsis – exploiting the genetic definition and tools available from this model species to identify and study genes for resistance. At this time he co-ordinated a large EU project on brassica germplasm evaluation for pest and disease resistance as well as researching apple scab genetics gene-flow in brassicas.

In 1993 he returned to Wellesbourne and after two years as head of plant pathology with responsibilities across six HRI sites, he became director at Wellesbourne with overall responsibility for the direction of research at the site. In 1999 Ian was appointed director of Rothamsted Research (formerly the Institute of Arable Crops Research) with overall responsibility for the work of the Institute at Rothamsted, the former Long Ashton site and Broom’s Barn.

Ian’s research contribution is recorded in over 160 publications and he was awarded the Research Medal of the Royal Agricultural Society of England in 1992 for work of practical significant to disease control in vegetable crops. He was elected president of the British Society for Plant Pathology in 1995, holds a visiting professorship in the Faculty of Biological Sciences at the University of Oxford, is chairman of the Sainsbury Laboratory Council and is a member of the BBSRC Strategy Board.

Ian is married to Liz, a science teacher, and lives in St Albans. They have two grown-up daughters. After 30 years, Ian’s activities on the hockey field have been curtailed by advancing decrepitude but he is now working towards an ambition to secure a single-figure golf handicap.

Dr Nick W Sotherton

Nick Sotherton obtained a first class honours degree in agricultural zoology at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne. He then undertook a PhD at the University of Southampton where his work provided a spring board for further ground breaking work in the area of agro-ecology and the sub-lethal effects of pesticides on non-target species.

Following gaining his PhD and a year spent with Professor Van Emden at the University of Reading, in 1981 Nick joined The Game Conservancy Trust as manager of the Farmland Ecology Unit and headed the highly influential Cereals and Gamebirds Research Project. In 1993 he became director of research in the Lowlands for The Game Conservancy and since 1998 he has been director of research.

Nick’s work has focused on problem solving at the interface between agriculture and wildlife. His work on the sub-lethal and indirect effects of pesticides on non-target species showed how laboratory experiment, coupled with a clear knowledge of food webs in cropped and non-cropped areas on farms, could be used to conserve, not only gamebirds, such as partridges, but also a wider range of beneficial arthropods. This either by providing over-wintering cover in the form of beetle banks, or the use of manipulated spray regimes for herbicides to maintain populations of selected beneficial weeds in crops.

These advances, coupled with work on conservation headlands, which now cover a significant proportion of the UK cereal cropland, have been significant in the development of Integrated Pest Management (IPM), wildlife conservation and farmland ecology. This remains hugely important as agriculture changes focus from production to a far wider range of options. Much of today’s UK’s agri-environment policy options are based on the work of The Game Conservancy Trust and reflect Nick’s belief that wildlife can thrive on modern, high input arable farms.

Not surprisingly Nick has been called upon to serve on a number of advisory bodies including the Environmental Panel Advisory Committee on Pesticides, The Pesticides Forum and the Environmental Panel Sub-Group on Wider Biodiversity. He is a board member of the Agricultural Systems Directorate of the BBSRC and also the Scientific Steering Committee for the Field-Scale Evaluation of Herbicide Tolerant GM crops.

As a husband and a father of two teenage daughters, Nick has no personal life but has recently re-learned to scuba dive. It can be very peaceful at 18 metres depth!

Professor Helmut F van Emden

Helmut van Emden (almost universally known as ‘Van’), was brought to the UK from Germany by his Dutch father and German mother when he was only three years old, shortly before the outbreak of World War II. He obtained both his BSc in zoology and applied entomology, and his PhD at Imperial College before moving to the University of Reading in 1961. From lecturer in the Department of Horticulture he progressed through reader and personal professor in Applied Entomology in 1976, to head the department in 1986 and was then appointed to the Chair of Horticulture. He was head of the School of Plant Sciences from 1992 to 1997, and retired to become Emeritus Professor in 1999. He is also a Rothamsted Fellow and has held visiting appointments at the Universities of Queensland and California (Berkley).

Van’s research has focused on insect-plant relations. His work on aphid nutrition and his pioneering work on the role of non-crop plants in the ecology of pests and their natural enemies led on the development of the ‘Pest Management Triad’ – the synergistic interactions in IPM between host plant resistance, biological control and insecticides. This enabled him to predict, as early as 1990, some of the potential disadvantages of GM crops – a topic on which he has written and lectured extensively. In his career, he has trained over 60 research students and read over 250 theses. He is equally well known in the tropics as well as the UK via his research collaboration with the international Institutes of Agriculture and through his publications.

As a teacher he has been highly active in promoting cop protection. With his colleague Dr Nigel Hague, he developed the MSc in the Technology of Crop Protection which has trained some 800 students since its inception in 1968. His policy has been to run practical classes where possible and ensure the relevance of taught material to farm practices is kept in the forefront of students’ thinking and reading. One of his proudest moments was when he was on the staff of a spray application course for ag-pilots in Australia and one said, “You’re the first Prof. I’ve met who knows how to calibrate a spraying machine!”

Van has served as president of both the Royal Entomological Society and the Association of Applied Biologists, both societies have honoured him with honorary fellowship/membership.

Outside academia, Van was a Scout leader for 42 years during which time he developed a love of mountains and winter fell-walking. He plays the organ and composes music. Before computers, he was a hobbyist letterpress printer and he has an extensive plant herbarium. He enjoys cooking and wine (especially red). He and his wife Gillian (a zoologist and artist) live in Reading.