April 29, 2020

expert reaction to the death of Lord Robert May

Lord Robert May, former Government Chief Scientific Advisor and President of the Royal Society, died on the 28th of April.

Prof Sir Brian Hoskins FRS, Chair of the Grantham Institute at Imperial College London, said:

“Bob May was an Australian who became famous for his research at Oxford on the mathematical modelling of ecosystems, developing chaos theory in that context. He was a towering figure in UK science for many years, including being Government Chief Scientist and President of the Royal Society. He was very aware of the climate change problem and for the first years of the Climate Change Committee I experienced at first hand his sharp, penetrating mind. He enjoyed making the establishment uncomfortable, in particular with his sometimes colourful language learnt in his youth!”

Prof Vincent Savolainen, Director of the Grand Challenges in Ecosystems and the Environment Initiative at Imperial College London, said:

“I met Bob during my time at Kew and more recently at Silwood Park. He was always giving inspirational talks, not always ‘politically correct’ as some may say, but shaking preconceived ideas with the strength of an outstanding scientific mind.”

Prof Sir Gordon Conway FRS FREng, Professor of International Development at Imperial College London and formerly President of the Rockefeller Foundation and President of the Royal Geographical Society, said:

“I first met Bob May when he visited us at Silwood Park, Imperial College in 1971. He was Professor of Theoretical Physics at Sydney University and he came to us because he was attracted by the ecological problems we were trying to solve for which he had answers. We created a small team, subsequently called the Silwood Circle (see the book by Hannah Gay with this title), led by Dick Southwood, Head of the Department.

“The team was extraordinarily productive – each morning we would present Bob with a problem we were trying to solve, he would come up with a mathematical approach and by the afternoon we had a draft of a paper for publication. The next challenge was the order of authorship, which we resolved by croquet matches that Bob usually won. In addition to Bob, Dick and myself were Mick Crawley, Mike Hassell, Roy Anderson, John Lawton, John Krebs, David Rodgers and John Beddington – all eventually pursuing distinguished careers in academia and as chief scientists, and helping to form a next generation of mathematical ecologists active today.”

Prof Sir Charles Godfray FRS, Past President of the British Ecological Society and Oxford Martin School, University of Oxford, said:

“Bob May’s contributions to ecology were immense; he provided a rigorous framework that underpins the way we all today think about population and community dynamics. He was a pioneer of chaos theory and made very substantial contributions to epidemiology and other fields. For decades he was a major figure in British scientific life, for example during his period as Government Chief Scientific Advisor clarifying the rules of engagement between scientists and policy makers. And he had an abiding love of wild places, and I think was nowhere happier than on long walks with his family and friends in beautiful landscapes.”

Prof Sir Venki Ramakrishnan FRS, President, The Royal Society, said:

“Robert May was an extraordinary man who drove great change in every domain he committed his talents to: in research as a theoretical ecologist; in politics as Chief Scientific Adviser to the UK Government; and as my forebear as President of the Royal Society. Bob was a natural communicator and used every available avenue to share his message that science and reason should lie at the heart of society, and he did so with a fervent pursuit that resonates with those of the Society’s founding members.

“For background:

“Bob May was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1971. In 1996, he was knighted for services to science. He became one of the first life peers in the House of Lords in 2001 and was appointed by Her Majesty The Queen to the Order of Merit in 2002. He has served in several high-profile roles, including President of the Royal Society and Chief Scientific Adviser to the UK government. Major prizes include the Swedish Craaford Prize, the Japanese Blue Planet Prize, and the Swiss-Italian Balzan Prize. He was awarded the Royal Society’s Copley Medal for his seminal studies of interactions within and among biological populations that have reshaped our understanding of how species, communities and entire ecosystems respond to natural or human created disturbance.”