We are very pleased to announce that the speaker at this year's Burntwood Lecture will be Professor Charles Godfray CBE FRS.

Charles is Hope Professor in the Zoology Department at Oxford. He is a population biologist who combines theoretical and experimental research to try to understand fundamental and applied problems in ecology, evolution and epidemiology.  He has a strong interest in the science-policy interface and chaired the UK Government’s Foresight Project on “The Future of Food and Farming”.  He is a past President of the British Ecological Society and currently chairs Defra's Science Advisory Council.  He is a Fellow of the Royal Society and foreign member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and received a CBE in 2011.

Charles’ lecture is titled ‘Badgers, bees and biodiversity: can we really have evidence-based environmental policy?’ and will explore the complex and often contentious role of scientific evidence and scientists in informing policy. The lecture will draw on Charles’ own work developing policy-neutral evidence summaries for decision makers, and he will use examples from a range of debates including those over the control of bovine TB, and neonicotinoid insecticides, as well as discussing more generally his views on how evidence can be better provided for, and used by, policy makers.

The event will be taking place on the evening of Tuesday 17 November, and is free to IES members. For more information, and to book your place, see the event details.

If you provide products or services to the environmental sector, why not consider some of the branding and exhibiting opportunities that are available at Burntwood this year? For more information please contact Emma Fell.