Research Group
Research Overview
In light of environmental change there is an urgent need to address key societal challenges such as food security and biodiversity loss. An effective strategy to mitigate risk is to provide accurate forecasting models to avoid the devastating consequences of emerging epidemics that threaten crops, forests and culturally-valued trees. My research focuses on establishing and testing theoretical frameworks to identify epidemiological mechanisms to improve the prediction and control of outbreaks of pathogens and pests within changing agricultural and natural landscapes. Together with my team, we develop applications for monitoring large-scale pandemics and design intervention strategies for invasive pathogens and pests in subsistence agriculture. Current projects are targeted at desert locust as well as major pathogens and insect vectors on wheat, cassava, banana and citrus.
Working closely with collaborators, our models have been used to inform policy on emerging pest and pathogen threats by the UK Government, United States Department of Agriculture and Australia. A current research programme supported by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, provides practical applications for surveillance and management of disease of staple crops in 15 sub-Saharan African Countries, Bangladesh and Nepal. We have successfully released an early warning system for wheat rusts in Ethiopia in collaboration with the UK Met Office, CIMMYT and the Ethiopian Institute of Agricultural Research that is now being extended with in-country partners to Kenya, Bangladesh and Nepal.
School of Biological Sciences Theme Affiliations
Organisms, Evolution and Ecology
Current Positions
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2020 to present - Director of Research, Department of Plant Sciences, University of Cambridge
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1988 to present - Fellow, King’s College, University of Cambridge
Previous Positions
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2009 to 2013 - Head of the School of Biological Sciences, University of Cambridge
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2008 to 2009 - Deputy Head of the School of Biological Sciences, University of Cambridge
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1999 to 2020 - Professor of Mathematical Biology, Department of Plant Sciences, University of Cambridge
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1995 to 1999 - Reader in Mathematical Biology, Department of Plant Sciences, University of Cambridge
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1989 to 1995 - University Lecturer, Department of Plant Sciences, University of Cambridge
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1982 to 1989 - University Lecturer, Department of Applied Biology, University of Cambridge
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1982 to 1982 - Visiting Professor, Department of Botany & Plant Pathology, Colorado State University
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1977 to 1982 - University Demonstrator, Department of Applied Biology, University of Cambridge
Qualifications
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1999 - ScD, University of Cambridge
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1978 - MA, University of Oxford
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1977 - MA, University of Cambridge
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1974 to 1978 - DPhil Plant Pathology, Wolfson College, University of Oxford
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1971 to 1974 - BA Agricultural & Forest Sciences, Keble College, University of Oxford
Key Publications
Awards and Fellowships
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2015 - CBE for Services to Plant Pathology in the field of Epidemiology (Queen’s Birthday Honours)
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2012 - R.W. Holley Lecturer, Cornell University
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2005 to 2010 - Professorial Research Fellow, BBSRC (UK National Research Council)
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2009 - Fisher Lecturer, Rothamsted Research
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2005 - Honorary Fellow, American Phytopathological Society
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2001 - President, British Society for Plant Pathology
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2000 - Professorial Fellow, King's College, Cambridge
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1999 - ScD, University of Cambridge
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1999 - Personal Chair, University of Cambridge
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1998 to 1999 - Senior Research Fellow, Royal Society Leverhulme Trust
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1998 to 2013 - Honorary Research Fellow, Rothamsted Research
Principal Boards, Trusteeships
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2021 to 2028 - Trustee, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew: Queen’s Trustee (2022-23); King’s Trustee (2023-28); Deputy-Chair (2022-28)
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2021 to 2024 - Trustee, James Hutton Institute, Scotland
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2011 to 2019 - Trustee, Natural History Museum, London, Prime Ministerial Appointment
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2011 to 2014 - Chair, Science Advisory Council, DEFRA
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2011 to 2014 - Chair, Cambridge Programme for Sustainability Leadership Board
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2003 to 2009 - Council Member, Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council
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2009 to 2013 - General Board Member, University of Cambridge
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1998 to 2008 - Trustee, Silsoe Research Institute
Chairing of National Scientific Reviews
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2012 to 2013 - Chair, UK Tree Health and Plant Biosecurity Taskforce
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2008 - Chair, BBSRC Council Science Group for Institute of Animal Health
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2006 - Chair, BBSRC Chair Review Institute of Animal Health
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2003 to 2004 - Chair, BBSRC Council Review of Crop Science Research
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2003 - Chair, Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique (INRA), Evaluation Commission for National Research on Plant Health and Environment
Teaching
Range of courses in epidemiology, plant pathology, statistics and mathematical biology. Designed and led for many years an innovative 60-lecture course with practicals in Quantitative Biology (now Mathematical Biology) that introduced first year biology students with the equivalent of A-level mathematics to modelling, computing and statistical analysis.
Selected press and media (2012-2022)
BBC Radio interviews on epidemiological research: Radio 4 World at One (Jan 2013), Farming Today (Dec 2012); Local Radio: Naked Scientist (Dec 2012), Radio Cambridgeshire (Mar 2013), Radio 4, Today Programme (May 2013), Radio 4 Material World (May 2013), Radio 4, Costing the Earth (March, 2014).
BBC Television interviews on epidemiological research: BBC Newsnight (May 2013), BBC News 24 (May 2013), Countryfile (June 2013).
Science Museum, London: Plant plagues and crop contagions, Science Lates in connection with Gates Foundation Grand Challenges (Oct. 2016).
CoP26: Wheat Rust Early Warning System in Ethiopia. Jointly with the Cambridge Epidemiology and Modelling Group, the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Centre and the UK Met Office Because Farmers Feed Us All: COP26 Blue Zone Science Pavilion event (Oct. 2021).
