Prof. Nick Sotherton, Director of Research at the Game and Wildlife Conservation Trust
Nick obtained a first class honours degree in Agricultural Zoology at the University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne followed by a PhD at the University of Southampton, where his work provided a spring-board for further research on the whole area of sub-lethal effects of pesticides on non-target species. He joined the Game Conservancy Trust in 1983 as Manager of the Farmland Ecology Unit and headed the highly influential Cereals and Gamebirds Research Project. He became Director of Research in 1998 with overall responsibility for all research within the Trust and steering the 60+ scientists that work there. In 2010, he was offered an Honorary Chair at Exeter University.
Dr. Françoise Burel, Director of Research CNRS
Françoise obtained a degree in agronomy at the national school for agronomy in Rennes, France followed by a PhD at the University of Rennes, where she pioneered work in landscape ecology, looking at the effect of landscape structure on plant communities in a watershed. She then joined the CNRS (National Centre for Scientific Research) after working as a consultant. She became Director of Research in 1995, and head of Ecobio laboratory in 2000. She received the silver medal of CNRS in 2009, and is a member of the Swedish Academy of Agriculture and Forestry.
Professor Richard Pywell (NERC CEH)
Professor Pywell is head of a section comprising 33 scientists which include the UK Biological Records Centre (http://www.brc.ac.uk/). He is Programme Leader for research on biodiversity and ecosystem services across CEH. Richard is a leading expert on the restoration and management of biodiversity within intensively managed farmland ecosystems (over 60 peer-reviewed publications), with a particular interest in the role of plants and invertebrates in supporting ecosystem service provision. Over the last 15 years he has won significant research funding from the UK Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) and the farming industry to develop practical and effect approaches to managing biodiversity within farmland habitats, including field margins and hedgerows.
