Born 30.12.1933 in Dresden Germany, before the family moved to London in 1936. Educated at Tiffin Boys’ School, Kingston-on-Thames (8 A-levels in languages and sciences) and Imperial College (Department of Zoology and Pure and Applied Entomology.  BSc (1st) (London), PhD (London), ARCS, DIC (Imperial College, London).

Career outline
Following a period of postdoctoral research at Imperial under the late Professor T.R.E. Southwood, he was appointed Lecturer in the Department of Horticulture at Reading University. Progressing via a Readership to a Personal Chair in Applied Entomology in 1976, he translated to the Chair of Horticulture in 1986, retiring to an Emeritus position in 1999. Head of the School of Plant Sciences at the university 1992-1996, when the School achieved the only 5* research rating in plant sciences and agriculture in the UK. Visiting Associate Professor at the University of California (1973), Visiting Professor at the University of Queensland (1980) and Visiting Schoiar at Queensland Agricultural College (1982). Author/editor of 15 books and over 240 scientific papers (most as sole author or co-author with a postgraduate). Research, teaching, advisory work and conferences have taken him to over 50 countries in Europe, Asia, Africa (particularly Nigeria), Australasia and North & South America. Has trained over 60 research students from 26 countries.

Honours and awards
Awarded the Forbes (1953) and Huxley (1973) medals and prizes of Imperial College, London and in 1993 the Karl Escherisch medal of the German Society of General and Applied Entomology. BCPC Medal in 2005 for services to Crop Production. President (1981-1983) and Honorary Treasurer (1989-1999) of the Royal Entomological Society; elected an Honorary Fellow in 1999. President (2000 and 2001) of the Association of Applied Biologists, elected an Honorary Member in 2002. Appointed a Rothamsted Fellow (1998-2016). Elected to the Entomological Club in 1972, Verrall member (1972–2012), Honorary Treasurer (2004-2018), elected an Honorary Member in 2019.

Research interests
Insect-plant relationships from the community level in agriecosystems (ecosystem services of biodiversity) to the genetic and mechanistic level in terms of host plant resistance, to the individual insect level exemplified by the nutritional physiology of aphids and the olfactory responses of parasitoids of aphids to host plant cues. Has run the only really long-term (over 30 years) culture of an aphid (Myzus persicae) on a fully-defined artificial diet. Interest in plant resistance has led to the concept of the “Pest Management Triad” exploiting beneficial synergism (superadditivity) of combining any two of plant resistance, biological control and insecticides, as well as of the three way interaction between all three approaches. The Triad enables predictions on the potential advantages and disadvantages of using transgenic methods to obtain host plant resistance to insects.

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