IGER Governing Body (December 2007)

The Institute is a registered charity and a company limited by guarantee. Its Governing Body, made up of representatives from the agricultural industry, academia, and other interested groups, guides the strategy of the Institute.

Members of Governing Body in alphabetical order:

Caroline Drummond

Caroline Drummond is the Chief Executive of LEAF (Linking Environment And Farming). She graduated in Agriculture with Honours and has broad practical agricultural experience from both the UK and overseas. Prior to her joining LEAF, she lectured in agronomy and she has been running LEAF since it started in 1991. Her work takes her throughout the UK and Europe developing and promoting Integrated Farm Management through demonstration farms, management tools, including the LEAF Audit right through to the market place with LEAF Marque produce. She has spoken as a key contributor for conferences throughout Europe and in Australia. She was Chairman and Director for the 2005 Oxford Farming Conference Council, is a Fellow of the Royal Agricultural Societies (FRAgS) and a director for LEAF Marque. She sits on a variety of Government steering groups in the UK, the Policy Council for the CPRE, and is a Governor of the School of Agriculture, Royal Agricultural College. She is married to a dairy farmer in Cornwall and they have a young daughter.

Professor K J Edwards

Professor Edwards holds the Chair in Cereal Functional Genomics at the University of Bristol. Before joining the University of Bristol he held senior posts at IACR-Long Ashton Research Station and ICI/Zeneca Seeds. His research interests are concerned with applying molecular techniques to cereal development, agronomy and breeding. He is a member of the DEFRA Sustainable Arable Link Programme Committee, the BBSRC Tools & Resources Strategy Panel and the BBSRC Agri-Foods Committee. He is the founding Editor in Chief of the recently launched Plant Biotechnology Journal.

Professor Alan J Gray OBE (Chairman)

Alan Gray retired in 2003 as Director of the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology's Dorset Laboratory after more than 35 years of research in plant ecology and genetics. He currently holds a CEH Fellowship and is a Visiting Professor at the Universities of Southampton and Bournemouth. His research interests include the conservation genetics of natural plant populations (mainly various grass species), the ecology of salt marshes and gene flow between crops and wild relatives. He has been on a number of peer review and visiting groups and has held several senior committee posts including Chair of the Advisory Committee on Releases to the Environment. He is a member of the Royal Horticultural Society's Conservation and Environment Advisory Committee. He was formerly Vice President of the British Ecological Society, President of the Estuarine and Coastal Sciences Association, and an Editorial Board member of Heredity and Journal of Ecology.

Professor Peter J Gregory

Director of the Scottish Crop Research Institute since April 2005, Professor Gregory has degrees in Soil Science from the Universities of Nottingham (BSc) and Reading (PhD). He became a lecturer at Reading University in 1980 but spent five years between 1988 and 1993 working as a research scientist for CSIRO in Perth, Western Australia. He returned to Reading in 1994, first as Head of the Department of Soil Science, then from 1996-1998 as Dean of the Faculty of Agriculture and Food and from 1998–2005 as Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Research. His research interests are in the interaction of plant roots with soil and the production of food crops. These interests have allowed him to work for extended periods in Syria, India and West Africa. He is currently leader of an international programme on the effects of global environmental change on food systems.

John Lloyd Jones

John Lloyd Jones, OBE is Chairman of the Countryside Council for Wales, a Member of the Joint Nature Conservation Committee and a farmer / landowner. He has previously held positions as Chairman of the Welsh Advisory Committee to the Forestry Commission, of the Beef and Lamb Working Group of the Welsh Food Strategy, of NFU Wales (1993-1998) and of the NFU Parliamentary, Land Use and Environment Committee for England and Wales (1998 – 2000). In addition, he has been a Member of the UK Round Table on Sustainable Development, a Member of Snowdonia National Park, a Member of the Welsh Environment Protection Advisory Committee and a Member of the Welsh Committee of the National Trust.

Dr. Gilles Lemaire

Dr. Gilles Lemaire is Director of Research at INRA (France). During the last eight years he was deputy-director of the Environment and Agronomy Department of INRA in charge of Plant Ecophysiology. His own scientific activity was mainly focussed on grassland ecology: nitrogen nutrition, plant growth and morphogenesis, plant-animal interactions, plant competition and vegetation dynamics. He now directs a large multi-disciplinary and multi-scale programme at national level on the environmental impacts and benefits of the integration of grassland and cropping systems for sustainable land use and land management.

Professor Noel Lloyd

Professor Lloyd is Vice-Chancellor and Principal of Aberystwyth University. He graduated in Mathematics from the University of Cambridge and completed his PhD there. He was a Research Fellow at St John’s College, Cambridge, and came to Aberystwyth in 1975. After being Head of the Mathematics Department, he became a Pro Vice-Chancellor and, in 1999, Registrar and Secretary. His research interests are in Nonlinear Differential Equations and their applications. He is a member of the boards of the Universities and Colleges Employers Association and the Quality Assurance Agency.

Professor John MacLeod

Professor John MacLeod has had a lifelong interest and involvement in the practical application of research through field trials and dissemination of information to the agricultural and horticultural industries. He joined ADAS in 1964 and worked on a number of Experimental Farms followed by a period in London as Director of the ADAS Experimental Centres. He was Director and Chief Executive of the National Institute of Agricultural Botany, Cambridge, from 1990 until retirement in 1999. His current activities continue his interest in the application and public understanding of plant science: Chairman of the British Beet Research Organisation; Royal Horticultural Society Council member and RHS Professor of Plant Science; Vice- Chairman of the British Crop Protection Council; and Chairman of BASIS (Registration) Ltd.

Professor J MacRae

Professor MacRae is currently Deputy Director (Science) at the Rowett Research Institute in Aberdeen. After graduating from the University of Newcastle, he held posts with DSIR in New Zealand and the Hill Farming Research Institute in Edinburgh before joining the Rowett in 1978 as Head of the Energy Metabolism Department. Since then he has been Head of both the Physiological Sciences and the Protein Metabolism Divisions before taking up his present post in 1999. His research interests are in the areas of digestive physiology, protein metabolism and the productive efficiency and product quality of forage-fed ruminants. He has served on several MAFF, BBSRC and EU grant awarding and review committees and was a member of the Director's Advisory Group on Animal Science at IGER from 1994-97. Currently he holds honorary university positions in the Agriculture Faculty in Aberdeen and the Veterinary Faculty in Liverpool.

Mr David Munday

Mr David Munday farms in partnership with his sister near Crediton in mid Devon. The 350 acre farm carries 140 milking cows and replacements as well as growing 100 acres of wheat as a cash crop. Grazed grass is a key component of the dairy system, combined with maize, as often the sole winter forage. Being a firm believer in co-operation, milk is marketed via Milk Link and grain via Devon Grain (both farmer owned Co-operatives). Inputs are also sourced through a farmer run buying group; Exe Vale Farmers. He also jointly administers and co-ordinates the Maize Growers Association from the farm office, as well as offering technical advice on manure and nutrient management via farm based courses, as part of Devon farm advice specialists Creedy Associates.

Professor CJ Newbold

Jamie Newbold previously worked at both the Hannah and Rowett Research Institutes in Scotland before joining the Institute of Rural Sciences (IBERS Aberystwyth) at Aberystwyth University as Professor of Animal Science and Director of Research in 2003. His research interests focus on the understanding and manipulation of gut ecosystems to improve animal productivity while reducing the environmental impact of animal husbandry. 

Mr Don Thomas

Don Thomas is a qualified accountant and has a Masters Degree in Business Administration. He is Managing Director of Welsh Lamb & Beef Promotions Ltd and General Manager of the Welsh Agricultural Organisation Society Ltd. Don is also on the board of several small and medium size companies operating in the agrifood areas including Hybu Cig Cymru and Quality Welsh Food Certification Ltd. 

Professor Deri Tomos

Professor Alun Deri Tomos holds the Charles Evans Chair of Physiological Biochemistry in the School of Biological Sciences, University of Wales at Bangor where he has been a prominent teacher and researcher (rising from Lecturer) since 1977. In addition to a range of University duties, he was a member of the BBSRC Plant & Microbial Sciences Committee from 1999 to 2002. He has undertaken periods of research at the Nuclear Research Centre Jülich (1980-1), the USDA Laboratory of Utah State University (1986), the Universities of Darmstadt and Heidelberg (1997) and has collaborated with IGER since the mid 1980s. He has specialised in biochemical, physiological and molecular biological aspects at the resolution of individual cells in living, intact plants using the single cell pressure probe. More recently the same techniques have been applied to studying soil solutions in the soil rhizosphere. He has a particular interest in communicating science to non-scientists through radio and television (largely through the medium of Welsh). He is the current chair of the 2005 National Eisteddfod Science Committee and is President of the Association of Science Education (Wales)

Professor A P J Trinci

Tony Trinci obtained his B.Sc and Ph.D in Botany from the University of Durham. He joined the Microbiology Department at Queen Elizabeth College, University of London before moving to the University of Manchester in 1981. In Manchester he served one term as Pro Vice Chancellor for Research & Graduate Education and two terms as Dean of the School of Biological Sciences. He is a past President of the Society for General Microbiology and the British Mycological Society, and an Honorary Member of the Mycological Society of America. His research interests include the evolution of the QuornTM myco-protein fungus in continuous flow culture, the modes of action of antibiotics used to treat fungal infections of man and plants, and the role of obligately anaerobic fungi in the digestion of cellulose in the rumen of herbivores.

Professor Michael Winter

Professor Michael Winter OBE is Professor of Rural Policy & Director of the Centre for Rural Research at the University of Exeter. He is a rural policy specialist and a rural sociologist with particular interests in applying inter-disciplinary approaches to policy-relevant research and in direct engagement in the policy process. He is a Research Associate of the Institute of Grassland and Environmental Research. He is a Board Member of the Countryside Agency, Chair of the South West Rural Affairs Forum, President of Devon Rural Network, and Vice-Chair of the Hatherleigh Area Project. In 2000, he was a member of the Committee of Inquiry into Hunting with Dogs in England and Wales chaired by Lord Burns. He is a member of DEFRA’s Panel of Agricultural & Environmental Economists. He is on the editorial board of the International Journal of Sustainable Agriculture.