Prof. Nigel G. Halford Rothamsted Research, UK

Professor Nigel Halford is a Research Leader at Rothamsted Research, the UK’s largest and oldest crop and agricultural research centre. Professor Halford obtained his first degree from the University of Liverpool in 1983 and a Master’s degree from University College London in 1984. He studied the genes encoding a family... read moreof wheat seed proteins for his PhD while at Rothamsted in the 1980s, then spent 11 years at Long Ashton Research Station near Bristol before returning to Rothamsted in 2002. He is the author of more than 140 scientific papers, has written books on ‘Genetically Modified Crops’, now in its third edition (entitled ‘Crop Biotechnology’), ‘An Introduction to Bioenergy’, and ‘Acrylamide in Food’, and edited books on ‘Protein Phosphorylation in Plants’, ‘Plant Biotechnology’, and ‘Energy Crops’. His research programme concerns the genetics of metabolic regulation in crop plants, how plant metabolism is affected by environmental stress and crop management, and how it can be manipulated to improve crop yield, quality, and food safety. Professor Halford has worked with GM and more recently genome edited plants for more than 30 years and has been a prominent participant in the GM debate since the 1990s. He is a Visiting Professor at Shanghai Academy of Agricultural Sciences and received The Magnolia Silver Award from the Shanghai Municipal People’s Government in 2012. He is also Special Professor at the University of Nottingham, a former member of the UK’s Advisory Committee for Animal Feedingstuffs (ACAF), and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Biology.