BES Facebook pageBES Trustees and Officers
BES President: Georgina Mace FRS, Imperial College London
Georgina is Professor of Conservation Science at Imperial College London. From 2000 to 2006 she was Director or Science at the Zoological Society of London. In 2006 she moved to Imperial College London as Director of the NERC Centre for Population.
Email Georgina Mace
Find out more about Georgina Mace via the Imperial College London website
BES Past President: Charles Godfray FRS, University of Oxford
Charles has been Hope Professor in the Zoology Department at Oxford since 2006 and is a population biologist with broad interests in fundamental and applied ecology, and in science policy. He gained his PhD in Community Ecology from Imperial College, London in 1983 and from 1987 until 2006 was on the staff at Imperial, latterly as Head of Biology and Director of the NERC
Centre for Population.
Email Charles Godfray
Find out more about Charles Godfray via the University of Oxford website 
Council Member: Jeff Bale, University of Birmingham
Jeff is Professor of Environmental Biology at the University of Birmingham and Deputy Pro-Vice-Chancellor of the University with responsibility for Teaching, Learning and Quality. He studied at Newcastle University where he gained his BSc and PhD and was the Lord Adams Research Fellow. His research focuses on insect thermal biology, including the establishment potential of non-native species.
Email Jeff Bale
Find out more about Jeff Bale via the University of Birmingham website
Vice President: Richard Bardgett, University of Lancaster
Richard graduated in Soil Science at the University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, and then moved to Lancaster University where he gained his PhD in soil ecology in 1991. Afterwards, he worked at the Institute of Grassland and Environmental Research, and then at Manchester University as a lecturer, before returning to Lancaster where he is now Professor of Ecology.
Email Richard Bardgett
Find out more about Richard Bardgett via the University of Lancaster website
Meetings Committee Chair: Andrew Beckerman, University of Sheffield
Andrew moved to the UK in 1999 after completing his PhD in Ecology from Yale University, School of Forestry and Environmental Studies. Andrew is currently a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Animal and Plant Sciences at Sheffield. His research focuses on food webs and the evolution of phenotypic plasticity. He was a BES Council Member from 2007-2010.
Email Andrew Beckerman
Find out more about Andrew Beckerman via the University of Sheffield website
Council Member: Tim Blackburn, Institute of Zoology, ZSL
Tim is currently the Director of the Institute of Zoology, ZSL, London. He has been at ZSL since leaving the University of Birmingham in 2007, where he was Professor of Macroecology and lecturer in Population Biology. Tim spent almost ten years between 1991–2000 at NERC Centre for Population Biology after completing his D.Phil at the University of Oxford.
Email Tim Blackburn
Find out more about Tim Blackburn via the ZSL Institute of Zoology website
Council Member: Julia Blanchard, University of Sheffield
Julia is a Lecturer in the Department of Animal and Plant Sciences at the University of Sheffield. Julia became a research fellow at Imperial College London, Silwood Park where she still holds an honorary position.
Email Julia Blanchard
Find out more about Julia Blanchard via the Univeristy of Sheffield's website
Council Member: David Coomes, University of Cambridge
David has a great interest in studying invasive organisms, and is studying the long term affect of deer introduction into New Zealand, and the ability of a forest to recover in areas where the deer population is controlled. He is currently a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Plant Sciences at the University of Cambridge.
Email David Coomes
Find out more about David Coomes via the University of Cambridge website
Council Member: Thomas Ezard, University of Surrey
Thomas joined the BES Council in 2009 to represent young professional ecologists at the beginning of their careers. He is a postdoc who uses mathematical and statistical models to assess how environmental change affects population and community structure.
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Council Member: Emma Goldberg, Natural England, Peterborough
Emma has a BSc(Hons) in ecology from Edinburgh University and an MSc in Nature Conservation from University College London. She has been attending the Society meetings for over fifteen years, and is an active member of the Forest Ecology Group. She has been working for Natural England (and predecessors) for ten years as a Forestry and Woodland Specialist.
Council Member: William Gosling, Open University
William is lecturer in Earth and Environmental Sciences at The Open University he has a wide ranging interest in past environmental change with particular focus on human-climate-environment interactions at low latitudes. He ran the BES Tropical Ecology group (2006-09) and helped to instigate the Early Career Researcher Meetings.
Find out more about William Gosling and the Open University via their website
Publications Committee Chair: Alan Gray
Alan retired in 2003 as Director of CEH Dorset, where he'd spent most of his career. His long association with the BES includes, among other things, being a Vice President, Chairing the Ecological Affairs and the Publications committees and, with Malcolm Cherret, being architect of the Society’s first Strategic Plan.
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Council Member: Rosie Hails, CEH Oxford
Educated at Oxford University, Rosie moved to Imperial College to complete her PhD. She joined CEH in 1992 and is a Section Head with interests in disease ecology, ecosystem services and science policy. Rosie is also a senior research associate at the Zoology Dept, Oxford and a visiting Professor at Oxford Brookes. She was awarded an MBE in 2000 for services to environmental research.
Email Rosie Hails
Find out more about Rosie Hails via the CEH website
Honorary Secretary: Dave Hodgson, University of Exeter
Dave is a population ecologist, with key interests in the maintenance of biological diversity and in empirical modelling of population dynamics. He is a Senior Lecturer at the University of Exeter’s Cornwall Campus and was a Member of BES Council 2008-2010. He is an Associate Editor for MEE and for Endangered Species Research.
Email Dave Hodgson
Find out more about Dave Hodgson via the University of Exeter website
Council Member: Greg Hurst, University of Liverpool
Greg is an evolutionary ecologist, principally interested in the dynamics of host-parasite interactions. He is professor of Evolutionary Biology at the University of Liverpool. Greg is also an honorary Reader at UCL.
Email Greg Hurst
Find out more about Greg Hurst via the Univeristy of Liverpool
Education, Training and Careers Committee Chair: Libby John, University of Lincoln
Libby is a plant ecologist with many years research experience working in ecosystems from the Canadian arctic to the tropics. She is passionate about ecological education and enjoys leading undergraduate field courses. After 18 years at the University of Sussex, she has recently taken up a new post as Faculty Director of Teaching and Learning at the University of Lincoln.
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Council Member: Ruth Mitchell, The Macaulay Landuse Institute, Aberdeen
Ruth is an applied plant ecologist with long standing interests in the impact of a wide range of pressures (grazing, pollution and land use change) on biodiversity, particularly lower and higher plants. Ruth currently works at the Macaulay Institute on changes in plant and soil communities as a result of land-use change.
Email Ruth Mitchell
Find out more about Ruth Mitchell via The Macaulay Institute website
Honorary Treasurer: Drew Purves, Microsoft Research, Cambridge
Drew gained his PhD in ecological modelling at the University of York and spent nearly 6 years as a postdoc in the EEB Department at Princeton University before joining MSR Cambridge in 2007. He is currently the head of the Computational Ecology and Environmental Science Group at Microsoft Research.
Email Drew Purves
Find out more about Drew Purves via the Microsoft Research website
Council Member: Paul Raven, Freshwater Biological Association
Paul was Head of Conservation and Ecology at the Environment Agency for 15 years before taking early retirement in June 2011. He is now an Honorary Research Fellow at The Freshwater Biological Association where he will continue work on the relationship between river morphology and freshwater biological communities. Paul is also busy co-writing a book on the wildlife of British rivers.
Vice President: Bill Sutherland, University of Cambridge
For most of his career, Bill's research interests largely involve predicting the consequences of environmental change. He is an Editor in Chief for Conservation letters, an editor for Conservation Evidence and on the editorial board of Behavioural Ecology and he set up the Gratis book scheme to provide free conservation books to developing countries.
Email Bill Sutherland
Find out more about Bill Sutherland via the University of Cambridge website
Council Member: Adam Vanbergen, CEH Edinburgh
Adam has been employed by CEH since 1998 (CEH Banchory 1998-2007, CEH Edinburgh 2007-present) and is currently managing an interdisciplinary CEH project examining the relationship between land-use extensification, above- and below-ground biodiversity, and linked ecosystem processes.
Email Adam Vanbergen
Find out more about Adam Vanbergen via the CEH website
Public and Policy Committee Chair: Juliet Vickery - RSPB, Sandy
Juliet 'discovered' ornithology as an undergraduate at Oxford, where she remained for a DPhil before moving to the University of East Anglia for a post doc. Juliet then worked for Scottish Natural Heritage before moving to the University of Edinburgh. In 1997 she took up the post of Head of Terrestrial Ecology Unit at the British Trust for Ornithology, after 11 years Juliet moved to RSPB as Head of the International Research Section.
