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Lawton: ‘no conspiracy against marine science’. Credit: GEOFF FRANKLIN

John Lawton, director of the Centre for Population Biology at Imperial College, London, has been appointed to head the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC), Britain's main government funding agency for environmental research.

Lawton, who is already a member of NERC's governing council, will take up his post, initially for three years, in October. He replaces Sir John Krebs, who has been NERC's chief executive for the past five years.

The appointment has in general been widely welcomed. Lawton commands considerable respect, both as an ecologist — he has had 17 papers published in Nature and four in Science — and for his role as founding director of the Centre for Population Biology, which was set up 11 years ago.

But some members of the marine-science community say they are disappointed that a marine scientist was not appointed to head the research council. Lawton will be the second consecutive chief executive to have a background in zoology. Marine scientists feel that someone sharing their background would have been better motivated to lobby the government to raise funds for marine research, which has not fared as well as other environmental disciplines in recent years.

Lawton says he is aware of these concerns but, while declining to comment on them directly, he strongly denies any charges of a conspiracy against marine sciences in NERC.

He also says he is not planning any drastic changes to NERC's published three-year research agenda. But he adds that he is looking forward to developing interdisciplinary ideas within some of the agreed priority areas. These include exploring links between the environment and health, and between ecology and economics.

Lawton has a completely different personality to his predecessor. Krebs is noted for his diplomatic skills, whereas Lawton is usually unafraid to voice strong opinions, and has been described by one of his peers as “very persistent”.