John Krebs, Baron Krebs

Sir John Richard Krebs, Baron Krebs of Wytham, (* April 11, 1945 in Sheffield ) is a British zoologist, ethologist and ornithologist. He is active in the UK in various official and honorary positions in public life and a member of the House of Lords.

Life

Cancer is the son of German -born British Nobel laureate Hans Adolf Krebs. Cancer went to Oxford to school and studied at Oxford University (Pembroke College) with a bachelor's degree in 1966, the Master's degree in 1970 and his doctorate also in 1970. 1970 he was a year Demonstrator in Ornithology in Oxford. As a post - graduate student, he was at the Institute of Animal Resource Ecology, University of British Columbia (1970 to 1973 he became assistant professor of ecology). From 1973 he was a lecturer in zoology at the University College of North Wales in Bangor and in 1975 Lecturer in Zoology at the Edward Grey Institute of Field Ornithology at Oxford. During this time he was a Fellow of Wolfson College, before 1981 EP Abraham Fellow of Pembroke College. In 1988, he was Royal Society Research Professor in the Department of Zoology at Oxford and Fellow of Pembroke College until 2005. He was principal of Jesus College, Oxford in 2005.

He was a visiting professor at the University of Miami (1981 ), Queen's University in Ontario (1982 ), the University of Toronto (1984 ), SUNY (1987 ), the University of California, Davis (1985, Storer Lecturer ) and at the Indiana University ( Patten Lecturer, Fellow of the Institute of Advanced Study, 1994).

As a scientist, he dealt with the feeding behavior especially of birds. He also studied the mental abilities of birds with neurobiological methods.

He was head of an independent scientific commission of inquiry that investigated the question of the efficiency of killing of badgers as a preventative measure against bovine tuberculosis. These measures had been used until the early 1970s, as a protection law for badgers was adopted. Previously, it had been hoped to have bovine tuberculosis eradicated by killing the badgers, but 1971 proved to be a fallacy. The Cancer Report of 1997 concluded, that the efficiency of killing measures had not been proven and recommended randomized trials ( Randomized Badger Culling Trials ), which were carried out from 1998 to 2005. The final report in 2007 concluded that the killing of badgers, although locally could stem the spread of the disease, but also led to the spread of the disease and instead recommended better control of livestock.

1994 to 1999 he was Chief Executive of the Natural Environment Research Council.

2000 to 2005 he was chairman of the Food Standards Agency of the United Kingdom. In this role, he criticized the demand for organic products - neither advantages in quality or safety of these products are at scientifically proven.

Honors and Memberships

He is much honorary doctorates ( University of Sheffield, University of Wales, University of Birmingham, University of Exeter, University of Stirling, University of Warwick, University of Plymouth, University of Kent, University of Guelph, University of Aberdeen, Lancaster University, Heriot- Watt University, Queen's University Belfast and London South Bank University ).

Since 1985 he has been an external member of the Max Planck Society, and since 2003 Honorary Member of the German Ornithological Society. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society (1984 ), foreign member of the National Academy of Sciences (2004), the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (2000) and the American Philosophical Society. He is since 1999 Honorary Member of the British Ecological Society. 1991/92 he was the Council of the Zoological Society of London, and since 2006 its Honorary Fellow. He is an Honorary Freeman of the City of London.

2006 to 2007 he was a member of the Nuffield Council on Bioethics, an independent non-profit organization founded in 1991 ( funded by the Nuffield Foundation, the National Research Council and the Wellcome Trust).

He was knighted in 1999. In 2007 he was appointed Life Peer ( he is Baron of Wytham, Oxfordshire, and thus bears the title Lord ) and thus a member of the House of Lords Science and Technology Committee which he chaired since 2010. He belongs to no party in the House of Lords (Cross Bench).

Writings

• DW Stephens: Foraging Theory, Princeton University Press, 1986
• With Alan C. Kamil, H. Ronald Pulliam: Foraging Behavior, Plenum Press, 1987
• With NB Davies: An Introduction to Behavioural Ecology, 4th edition, Oxford, Blackwell, 1993
• With NB Davies ( eds.): Behavioural Ecology: An Evolutionary Approach, Oxford, Blackwell 1978, 4th edition 1997