Mike Depledge at Natural England

<http://education.guardian.co.uk/academicexperts/story/0,,1969752,00.html>

Natasha Gilbert
meets the marine biologist helping to inform government policy on pollution
(c) Tuesday
December 12, 2006The Guardian

"Ominous dark rain clouds weigh down the skies over Vauxhall bridge. Professor Mike Depledge peers into the river Thames, where a plethora of rubbish has collected by the bank. "And this is what we are going to clear up," he says wryly. We cross the road towards the hotel that has been his home for four days a week since he began work four years ago as head of science at the Environment Agency, and then as its chief scientific adviser.

"Depledge moved on from the Environment Agency in July after, he says, achieving what he set out to do: "My aim was to reinvigorate the agency's science. I feel I have made my contribution." His goal was to turn on its head the way science was done, bringing in fewer but more accomplished scientists to beef up the agency's expertise and improve the scientific advice delivered to policymakers. "There are other agendas and vehicles I want to pursue and now I have the opportunity to do that," he says.

"Depledge has been appointed to the board of Natural England, the government agency for nature conservation and land management launched in October. He has also taken up a seat on the Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution. "This group has been enormously influential in advising on government policy," he says. His roles will ensure he continues to make the weekly journey to London from his home in Plymouth, where he heads a research group at the Plymouth Marine Laboratory looking at the biological response chemicals that change the sex of fish and other marine life.

"Depledge's career has taken many twists and turns, transforming a shy schoolboy with, he admits, "appalling A-level results" into a quietly confident marine scientist with a strong hand in directing UK and European environmental policy. It started with a love of biology and the sea. "The sea is in my family. In one way or another, my family has been connected with the sea, dating back to the 1800s, when we owned a small shipping line."

"Looking back fondly at his days as an undergraduate at the former Westfield College (now Queen Mary, part of the University of London), Depledge says he liked nothing more than digging up beaches and studying sea creatures. Advice given to him during his university days had a profound effect on the direction his career has taken. "I was told it is only through the law and regulation that we can make a difference in the world. I always remembered that," he says. His journey into academia and the Environment Agency, and now the Royal Commission and Natural England, shows how well he heeded this message. "

Read more of Natasha Gilbert's interview ...
<http://education.guardian.co.uk/academicexperts/story/0,,1969752,00.html>

mailto:ng@researchresearch.com (News Editor, Research Fortnight)
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Senior science adviser at Plymouth Marine Laboratory, board of the Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution and of Natural England.
http://www.naturalengland.org.uk/
http://www.rcep.org.uk/
http://www.pml.ac.uk/