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Professor Ian Lamont Boyd FSB FRSE (born 9 February 1957) is a Scottish zoologist and the Chief Scientific Adviser at Defra, the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

Early life

He is the son of Dr John Morton Boyd CBE. He attended the independent George Heriot's School in Edinburgh. He went to St John's College, Cambridge until 1982. He was a Churchill Fellow in 1980.

Career

Professor Ian Boyd’s career has evolved from Physiological ecologist with the Natural Environment Research Council Institute of Terrestrial Ecology, to a Science Programme Director with the British Antarctic Survey, Director at the Natural Environment Research Council’s Sea Mammal Research Unit, Chief Scientist to the Behavioural Response Study for the US-Navy, Director for the Scottish Oceans Institute and acting Director and Chairman with the Marine Alliance for Science and Technology for Scotland. He has also been the Chief Executive or board member of several companies for the University of St Andrews. He is currently Professor in Biology at the University of St Andrews and Chief Scientific Adviser to the UK Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.

In parallel to his formal positions he has chaired, co-chaired or directed international scientific assessments; his activities focusing upon the management of human impacts on the environment.

Ian was responsible for establishing the Scottish Oceans Institute at the University of St Andrews and the Marine Alliance for Science and Technology for Scotland, one of Scotland’s cross-institutional research pools including eight of Scotland’s universities. He established several operating companies for the University of St Andrews and these now operate globally with subsidiaries in the United States, Canada and Hong Kong. As Director of the NERC Sea Mammal Research Unit he was responsible for advising Defra and the Scottish Government about policy related to marine mammals. He has been a member of the Scottish Science Advisory Council and is on the Board of Reviewing Editors of Science. He was Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Zoology from 2006-2008.

Professor Boyd has received numerous honours and awards recognising his contributions to science, including the Scientific Medal of the Zoological Society of London, the W. S. Bruce Medal (awarded once every 5 years) for his research in Polar Science and has been elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, Scotland’s National Academy, and is a Fellow of the Society of Biology. He has held an honorary professorship at the University of Birmingham and was awarded the Antarctic Service Medal of the United States in 1995. He led the Sea Mammal Research Unit at the University of St Andrews to the award of the Queen's Anniversary Prize in 2011. In 2017, he was awarded the Polar Medal and an honorary doctorate from the University of Exeter.

Degrees

He graduated from the University of Aberdeen with a 1st class Degree in Zoology in 1979 and from Cambridge University with a PhD in 1983. He was awarded a DSc by the University of Aberdeen in 1995 for his research on mammalian physiological ecology. The University of Exeter awarded him an honorary doctorate in 2017 for his contribution to science and policy.

DEFRA

His position at Defra was announced on 24 April 2012. He took up his post on 1 September 2012 and will stay for three years. He is currently a member of the Board of Fera Science Ltd. In 2017 he announced that he would be leaving Defra after five years as Chief Scientific Adviser but agreed to stay on following the 2017 General Election when Michael Gove became the Secretary of State for Defra. He explained in a blog that Defra "is responsible for delivering the basics of life – food, water and air – in sufficient quantities and to a demanding quality standard. As a consequence, we have to deal with some of the most difficult questions facing people and the planet" and that "like many others, I cannot easily walk away from these challenges and especially when opportunities are opening up which could ratchet us along the track to improvement."

He regularly writes a blog which often deals with controversial interpretations of scientific studies concerning the environment when he tries to correct misinterpretations or present alternatives to conventional thinking.

Since 2011 every government department has had their own Chief Scientific Adviser but Defra has had a Chief Scientific Adviser since its creation in 2001. Defra was formed from the Ministry for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food and part of the Department for the Environment, Transport and the Regions both of which had Chief Scientific Advisers up until the merger.

Publications

Ian Boyd has published over 180 peer reviewed scientific papers (H-index 52), 14 books and has been the author/co-author/editor of several major reports including a marine atlas of Scotland’s coastal seas.

Together with his father he has written several books about the natural history of the Hebrides include one published in the Collins New Naturalist series.

His most recent article in the journal Science, "Toward pesticidovigilance", called for a new approach to the regulation of pesticides. He also published a recent article in Nature, "Taking the long view", which advocated taking a systems approach to understanding the problems which governments have to manage Cite error: A <ref> tag is missing the closing </ref> (see the help page). and has recently become a Trustee of the South Georgia Heritage Trust.

Controversy

In July 2013, Boyd opined that "the scientific community needs to avoiding suggesting that policies are either right or wrong; and being willing to make the voice of science heard by engaging with the mechanisms already available through science advisory committees, by working with embedded advisers (such as myself), and by being the voice of reason, rather than dissent, in the public arena." The sentiment is seen as controversial by such people as Naomi Klein and George Monbiot, the latter of which described the opinion as "Shut up, speak through me, don't dissent – or your behaviour will ensure that science becomes irrelevant."

In October 2013, Professor Boyd rebutted these opinions by Naomi Klein and George Monbiot. Boyd stated that the point he was making in July was that "it is not their (scientists) job to make politicians' decisions for them – when scientists start providing opinions about whether policies are right or wrong they risk becoming politicised. A politicised scientist cannot also be an independent scientist."

Personal life

He married in 1982 and has one son and two daughters.

References

1. ‘BOYD, Prof. Ian Lamont’, Who's Who 2013, A & C Black, an imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing plc, 2013; online edn, Oxford University Press, Dec 2012 ; online edn, Nov 2012 accessed 5 Sept 2013
2. http://www.debretts.com/people/biographies/browse/b/22675/Ian%20Lamont+BOYD.aspx
4. https://www.exeter.ac.uk/honorarygraduates/2017/timetable/ceremony16/
5. Appointment to DEFRA
6. <https://ianlboyd.wordpress.com/2017/10/04/opportunities-too-good-to-miss/
7. https://ianlboyd.wordpress.com/
8. http://science.sciencemag.org/content/357/6357/1232
9. http://www.sght.org/
10. http://www.newstatesman.com/2013/10/science-says-revolt
11. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/sep/30/scientists-democracy-dissent-reasonable-boyd
12. http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/editorials/archives/2013/10/05/2003573745
13. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/oct/06/scientists-speak-up-politicians-decide-policy

External links

• DEFRA
• Scottish Science Advisory Council

Video clips

• Speech in November 2012 on YouTube for the Knowledge Transfer Network

v t e Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
Headquarters: Nobel House, Smith Square
Ministers	Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Minister of State for Food, Farming and the Environment Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Nature Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Environment and Rural Affairs Minister of State for Food Security and Rural Affairs
Non-ministerial	The Water Services Regulation Authority Forestry Commission
Executive agencies	Animal and Plant Health Agency Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science Rural Payments Agency Veterinary Medicines Directorate
Non-departmental public bodies	Executive Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board Consumer Council for Water Environment Agency Joint Nature Conservation Committee Marine Management Organisation National Forest Company Natural England Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew Sea Fish Industry Authority Advisory Advisory Committee on Releases to the Environment Independent Agricultural Appeals Panel Science Advisory Council Veterinary Products Committee Tribunal Plant Varieties and Seeds Tribunal
Other	Broads Authority Covent Garden Market Authority Dartmoor National Park Authority Drinking Water Inspectorate Exmoor National Park Authority Lake District National Park Authority New Forest National Park Authority North York Moors National Park Authority Northumberland National Park Authority Peak District National Park Authority South Downs National Park Authority UK Co-ordinating Body Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority

• Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
• 1957 births
• Alumni of St John's College, Cambridge
• Academics of the University of St Andrews
• Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (United Kingdom)
• Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh
• New Naturalist writers
• People educated at George Heriot's School
• Scottish marine biologists
• Scottish zoologists
• Living people