Fellows

Background

Patrick has been studying aquatic environments for over 50 years mainly in the applied field, including the environmental effects of flow regulation on river biota, macroinvertebrate-habitat relationships in fluvial systems, environmental impact studies and the development and testing of a national environmental assessment methodology for UK rivers. (RIVPACS). His interest in the midge family Chironomidae has continued since working on lakes in Finland. He instigated and co-edited a book on the family in 1995 and has advised on problems associated with midge swarms for water companies and for a House of Commons Select Committee. He has found 5 species new to science.

Current interests and activity

More recently Patrick has revisited previous study areas to investigate changes over the last 30 years, studied the effects of catchment activities on the fauna of streams and is working on agri-environmental projects. He continues to build a data base of macroinvertebrate communities in small streams and other overlooked habitats which contribute to overall biodiversity.

Background

Rick’s interest in diatoms stemmed from his research in the late 1960s as a PhD student in Coleraine assessing how diatoms preserved in the sediments of Lough Neagh could be used as indicators of eutrophication. He continued his research on eutrophication as a Royal Society Research Fellow in Uppsala, Sweden. At UCL in the mid- 1970s he founded the Environmental Change Research Centre (ECRC). With his research team he helped to develop a range of palaeolimnological methods to understand how lake ecosystems change through time in response to human activity, most notably nutrient enrichment, acid deposition and climate change. His work on the causes of lake acidification and subsequently on the recovery of surface waters from acidification has been his dominant research interest. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 2006.

Current interests and activities

Rick is now Emeritus Professor in Environmental Change at UCL. Since retiring he has been Editor-in-Chief of Biology Letters and a Trustee of the FBA. He is a strong advocate of the importance of high quality, long-term monitoring of freshwater ecosystems, especially the UK Upland Waters Monitoring Network, that he helped to create in 1988. He believes the FBA has a central role to play in promoting the science of freshwater ecology and, through its Fellows, bridging the gap between researchers and practitioners to understand and manage freshwater ecosystems more effectively. He now lives on the edge of the Yorkshire Dales where he co-ordinates the work of his local Environment Group and supports the activities of the Yorkshire Dales Rivers Trust.

Background

Phil is a Zoology graduate from Newcastle University, with a PhD on Trichoptera in the River North Tyne. Following various academic appointments in Newcastle, London and Jamaica, he led the freshwater work at the Nature Conservancy Council. Phil joined Scottish Natural Heritage when it was formed in 1992 and worked there until his retirement in 2017. In addition to his Fellowship at the FBA, he is a Fellow of CEH, with an honorary professorship at the University of the Highlands and Islands.

Current interests and activity

Most of Phil’s time is spent as Chief Editor of Aquatic Conservation: Marine and Freshwater Ecosystems. He is also a member of the Board of Directors of the River Restoration Centre, and the Freshwater Conservation Committee of IUCN’s Species Survival Commission, and chair the Advisory Group of the Rivers and Lochs Institute in Inverness. Phil continues to be involved in projects on river restoration and river ecosystem services, and in the development of European monitoring standards for fresh waters.

Background

John has a keen interest in macroinvertebrates including conservation, species identification and sample processing methods, biomonitoring, citizen science, DNA collections, and long-term monitoring. Being passionate about protecting freshwater biodiversity, he has had a long involvement with RIVPACS predictive model, and has led most of the research and development projects on this in recent years. He has also contributed to the development of biotic indices and the standardisation of sampling methods for deep river sampling.

Current Interests and Activities

John maintains his own reference collection of freshwater macroinvertebrates, and has also refined macroinvertebrate sample processing techniques and teaches students how to process samples accurately and efficiently. He undertakes external audit quality control sample processing, and collects species for DNA collection at the Natural History Museum. John also holds various teaching roles, delivering a range of courses for the Freshwater Biological Association and contributing to courses for Bournemouth University and the University of Southampton. John has carried out numerous surveys searching for rare mayflies and stoneflies in the UK, and rediscovered the critically endangered stonefly Isogenus nubecula in North Wales in 2017, a species now extinct from Western Europe apart from this single isolated find.

Background

Glen’s first area of interest was zooplankton population ecology but he has spent more than twenty years investigating the impact of climate change on temperate lakes and reservoirs. He remains a specialist in population dynamics of zooplankton, spatial distribution of phytoplankton and zooplankton and wind-induced mixing in lakes. He also studies the aquatic applications of airborne remote sensing, as well as the development and deployment of automatic monitoring systems. Glen was the first to demonstrate that year-to-year changes in the position of the Gulf Stream in the Atlantic influence the dynamics of lakes in the English Lake District. Between 1996 and 2006 he led four climate-related projects funded by the European Union that included partners from northern, western, central and southern Europe.

Current interests and activities

Glen holds visiting professorships at Aberystwyth University and University College London, and continues to study the impact of climate change and extreme weather events on freshwater ecosystems (particularly lakes).

Background

David started his career in freshwater biology after a degree in Zoology, as a PhD student with Professor Bill Stewart, in Dundee University. That gave him his first experience of the FBA, with visits to learn about limnology from Jack Talling and zooplankton from Bill Smyly and Geoff Fryer. That PhD, in lake eutrophication, led him to become the first limnologist for the new Rutland Water, for the former Welland & Nene River Division of Anglian Water Authority. He moved out of the water industry after 4 years to the University of Leicester, where he remained for the rest of his career, moving from the departments of Adult Education, to Zoology and then to Biology, as academic fashions changed. His first PhD student was the FBA’s current CEO; both of them were involved in starting, through running Adult Education field research, limnological studies in Kenyan Rift Valley lakes that lasted until his retirement. David continued research in river conservation ecology, which he had started at AWA.

Current interests and activity

David is Professor Emeritus at the University of Leicester, where he maintains his conservation interests in river restoration through the Welland Rivers Trust, which he helped form in 2010. He also studies the ecology of shallow lagoons at Norfolk nature reserves and is still publishing work from his African lake and English river studies.

Background

Liz began her career specialising in Diatoms. Her Ph.D. results were used to create a new diatom species, as hers were the first Scanning Electron Micrographs of this form. She began working at the FBA, alongside microbial ecologist John Lund, and carried out extensive algological studies of Blea Tarn and Blelham Tarn. Due to her success in this field she was one of the first women leaders on a Brathay Exploration Group to Norway and Iceland, to look for clues to early postglacial history of the UK.

Current interests and activities

Liz works at the FBA, curating the Fritsch Collection of Illustrations of Freshwater, Brackish and Terrestrial Algae, adding new species and improving taxonomic understanding. This work has led to the discovery of multiple new species of desmids and diatoms. Her goal is to make the thousands of images in the collection available on the interest, for everyone to use. Liz also spends time studying the history of the environment as lakes respond to changes within their catchment. Environmental history is similar to that of Local History and Genealogy, of which she is also a student.

Background

Alan’s research focusses on the ecology of stream organisms, ecosystem processes and neighbouring fields. His approach is based on natural history, having published taxonomic keys and life-history of invertebrates, but his long-term observations have been used to test general ecological theory and application. He advocates a more prominent ‘place in the sun’ for research on fresh waters and their conservation. Alan was Chairman of the Council of the Freshwater Biological Association from 1999 to 2010, and its President 2010-2011. He edited Freshwater Biology for 32 years (1982-2014).

Current interests and activities

Alan Hildrew is currently a Professor Emeritus of Ecology at Queen Mary London and Research Fellow of the Freshwater Biological Association. He won the International Ecology Institute’s prize for Limnetic Ecology in 2012 and his subsequent book (Freshwater acidification: natural history, ecology and environmental policy) was published in 2018. Presently he is writing a further book on streams and rivers and works on pathways for the uptake of methane-derived carbon into freshwater food webs.

Background

John has a keen interest in river invertebrate ecology and its application to ecological environmental assessment. He is particularly keen that assessment systems, including software tools, are freely available to all, as well as accurate, efficient and practical for widespread use. John has spent most of his career developing standard biological river quality assessment methods across the UK. He helped to develop intercalibration of national biological assessment systems across Europe by working on methods for standardising laboratory and field practice, quality assurance, biotic indices and diagnostic systems for interpreting biological data and the reference concept. John continues to manage and steer projects to develop and build on RIVPACS.

Current interests and activities

John is a national ecology advisor for the Environment Agency. His main role is as a technical lead for river invertebrate assessment methods, most of which he helps to develop for application across the UK with partners across the UK and co-ordinated with UK WFD Technical Advisory Group. John produces technical guidance for ecologists in the Environment Agency and beyond, also producing training material and running workshops. For the last 10 years, John has also worked with European colleagues on projects to build environmental management capacity in other countries: Turkey, North Macedonia and now Serbia. John is currently writing a handbook on biological methods in collaboration with the Foundation for Freshwater Research and the FBA.

Background

Despite winning a scholarship in physics and chemistry to Imperial College, Allan eventually graduated in Botany and has had a long-standing interest in freshwater algae, with numerous papers published in many fields. He has led a varied career, with fields including astrobiology working with NASA scientists, working on Archaean fossils and modern cyanobacterium stromatolites. He became a fellow of the Royal Statistical Society in 1998.

Current interests and activities

Allan currently works on the chemistry of phosphorous in lake sediments, as well as analysing growth of freshwater algae Nostoc at a Cumbrian site, and the mechanics of filamentous cyanobacteria. He currently holds an emeritus position at King’s College London. Although his wife thinks him an extreme example of an academic, they do find time for other activities. They are regular fell walkers, favouring ravine exploration. They also indulge a little in the arts, as both like music of the Baroque period and have a copy of an early harpsichord which is played on a regular basis. Scarlatti and the Bachs are favourite composers.

Background

Ian has a strong, long-standing background in fisheries science. He was part of a team that developed the first international fisheries information service to be based on WWW 2.0 protocols, an XML structure and linked data. Ian specialises in terminology tools for enhanced search and retrieve services. He has worked with the Institute of Cognitive Sciences and Technologies (ISTC), Rome; the University of Sheffield etc.to develop fishery ontologies for UN and EU contracts. He has also worked with UN FAO and the University of Glasgow to assist in the development of a Virtual Research Environment (iMarine) for fisheries.

Current interests and activities

Ian’s professional interests include all aspects of environmental information services including design; content; search; enhanced retrieval tools; dissemination and evaluation. Ian is the current Chair of the Advisory Board for the Aquatic Sciences and Fisheries Abstracts information service. He is also Chair of various Working Groups for subject, taxonomic and geographic retrieval tools.

Background

Roger is a biologist with a vast experience in the management of the aquatic environment, with particular emphasis on indicators of ecological health and environmental change. He began studying fish parasites during his PhD, and continued to explore the relationship between fish and their environment into his Post-doctoral Fellowship. He has been working with freshwater fish and their health for many years and this has included growth, parasites, water quality and environmental parameters as well as conditions of culture.

Current interests and activity

More recently, his focus has been on fish health examinations, water quality issues and life cycles of their parasites. This work has led him more into working with a more harmless parasite: the freshwater pearl mussel (Margaritifera margaritifera). Roger has been integral in the running of the FBA Ark project since 2007, carrying out investigations into the pearl mussel life cycle and man’s effects on its distribution, as well as reporting on many other aspects of their habitat.

Background

Ian has been interested in caddisflies (Trichoptera), as adults, and in the immature stages, for quite some time. Although he spent much of career as a general invertebrate zoologist, at Liverpool Museum, Ian was one of the early experts on Riverfly courses and has always had a passion for caddis. He has notably been interested in their UK distribution, conservation, and biology, and has enjoys telling people at all levels and in various situations about caddis and other freshwater invertebrates. Ian has written keys to help expand the knowledge of enthusiasts and experts, and wrote the first comprehensive UK Cased Caddis larva key, which incorporated information hitherto not known to science.

Current interests and activities

Fully retired from a curatorial job at World Museum Liverpool, Ian now organises the UK Caddis Distribution Scheme for the Biological Records Centre and has recently submitted 440,000 records that appear on maps of the National Biodiversity Network. He is working towards a printed UK Caddis Atlas with accounts of species biology, and is writing keys to up-date the current FBA Caseless Caddis Larva Key. Further interests include mobilising distribution data, and taking part in Bioblitzes.