BCPC has just announced the appointment of Professor Ian Crute to its Executive Board. Currently Director of Rothamsted Research – where he has overall responsibility for its scientific, operational, commercial and external liaison activities – Ian is due to take on the role of the first chief scientist for the Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board (AHDB), in September 2009.
"We are delighted to have Ian accept an appointment to the BCPC Executive Board," says, Dr Colin Ruscoe, Chairman of BCPC. "His scientific background and excellent knowledge of the crop protection industry will be of great value to BCPC in providing informed opinion on the current challenges facing the farming and scientific community, as well as helping us expand our range of publications and symposia."
Trained as a plant pathologist at the Newcastle University, where he completed a PhD, he then spent 13 years as Research Group Leader at Warwick HRI (formerly Horticulture Research Institute – Wellesbourne). In 1986 he went to the University of Wisconsin, USA on a Fulbright Fellowship where he worked on the genetics of fungal pathogens. Returning to England in 1987 he was appointed Head of Crop and Environment Protection at HRI East Malling. In 1993 he moved back to Warwick HRI as Head of Plant Pathology, and then Director, before taking up the post of Director of Rothamsted Research in 1999.
Ian was awarded BCPC’s Medal for outstanding contribution to crop protection in 2005.
