Simon Leather

Simon R Leather Hon.FRES is an entomologist in the UK, he is Professor of Entomology at Harper Adams University, Honorary Fellow of the Royal Entomological Society and is an expert in aphids and applied entomology.[1]

Simon Leather
Alma materUniversity of Leeds (BSc) University of East Anglia (PhD)
Scientific career
InstitutionsForestry Commission, Imperial College London, Harper Adams University
ThesisAspects of the ecology of the bird cherry-cat aphid Rhopalosiphum padi L (1980)
Doctoral advisorTony Dixon

Education and career

Leather had a childhood interest in insects[2] and was educated at King George V School (Hong Kong) and Ripon Grammar School, he studied BSc Agricultural Zoology at the University of Leeds, graduating in 1977; and a PhD on the ecology of the bird cherry-oat aphid at the University of East Anglia, graduating in 1980. He was a Royal Society postdoctoral fellow in Finland, working on the bird cherry-oat aphid, he moved back to UEA and then worked at the Forestry Commission.[3]

In the early 1990s he moved the Silwood Park campus of Imperial College London to be a lecturer, rising to Reader in Applied Ecology, in 2012 Leather moved to Harper Adams University to be Professor of Entomology.[4]

Academic activities

Leather has done extensive research into integrated pest management of insect pests in agriculture, horticulture and forestry[5] and he was a member of the UK government's Tree Health and Plant Biosecurity Taskforce.[6]

His work on aphids includes the discovery in pea aphids of cannibalistic behaviour.[7]

Leather has also carried out research in urban ecology, looking at the biodiversity value of roundabouts for over 10 years in Bracknell Forest.[8]

He is an advocate of the need for specialist training in entomology and taxonomy[9] and before his move to Harper Adams University was concerned that his then unique (in the UK) Masters courses in Entomology, Integrated Pest Management and Plant Pathology would cease on his eventual retirement.[10] In 2009 he coined the phrase 'institutional vertebratism' to describe the bias of scientific research funding to vertebrate animals, rather than the more numerous invertebrates.[11]

In late 2012 Leather joined Twitter with the account handle @entoprof[12] and in 2013 he started a personal blog Don't forget the roundabouts. He has talked and written about new platforms for non-academic science communication that are available online.[13][14]

Books
  • Ecology of Insect Overwintering, with Keith Walters and Jeff Bale, published by Cambridge University Press in 1993.[15]
  • Insect Reproduction, with Jim Hardie, published by CRC Press in 1995.[16]
  • Insects on cherry trees with Keith Bland, number 27 in the Naturalists' Handbooks series in 1999, now published by Pelagic Publishing.[17]
  • Edited Insect Sampling in Forest Ecosystems published by Wiley in 2005.[18]

Honours and awards

References
  1. "Staff Directory - Professor Simon Leather | Harper Adams University". www.harper-adams.ac.uk. Retrieved 2020-01-21.
  2. Key, Roger (9 Dec 2013). "Book review: Working in Entomology". rsb.org.uk/biologist. Retrieved 2020-01-21.
  3. "Professor Simon Leather - NBN Conference 2017". National Biodiversity Network. Retrieved 2020-01-21.
  4. "Harper Adams welcomes entomology experts". Harper Adams University. Retrieved 2020-01-21.
  5. Leather, Simon. "Pest management – it isn't just about the killing". The Conversation. Retrieved 2020-01-21.
  6. Elston, Charlotte (9 Nov 2012). "Plantwise Blog: Research Teams and Scientists Working to Stem Ash Dieback Fungus". blog.plantwise.org. Retrieved 21 Jan 2020.
  7. Marshall, Michael. "Zoologger: Baby vampire aphids drink parents' blood". New Scientist. Retrieved 2020-01-21.
  8. "Roundabouts can be so much more than just traffic-calming devices | ialeUK - International Association for Landscape Ecology". iale.uk. Retrieved 2020-01-21.
  9. "National Insect Week: The power of bugs". The Independent. 2010-06-20. Retrieved 2020-01-21.
  10. "Little buzz about entomology". Times Higher Education (THE). 2009-01-15. Retrieved 2020-01-21.
  11. Leather, S. R. (2013-08-01). "Institutional vertebratism hampers insect conservation generally; not just saproxylic beetle conservation". Animal Conservation. 16 (4): 379–380. doi:10.1111/acv.12068. ISSN 1469-1795.
  12. "Simon Leather 🔶🇪🇺 (@EntoProf) | Twitter". twitter.com. Retrieved 2020-01-21.
  13. Saunders, Manu E.; Duffy, Meghan A.; Heard, Stephen B.; Kosmala, Margaret; Leather, Simon R.; McGlynn, Terrence P.; Ollerton, Jeff; Parachnowitsch, Amy L. (2017). "Bringing ecology blogging into the scientific fold: measuring reach and impact of science community blogs". Royal Society Open Science. 4 (10): 170957. Bibcode:2017RSOS....470957S. doi:10.1098/rsos.170957. PMC 5666276. PMID 29134093.
  14. Mitchley, Jonathan (2013-12-18). "Why I Joined the Twitterati: Blogs, Tweets & Talks – Making Entomology Visible". Don't Forget the Roundabouts. Retrieved 2020-01-21.
  15. Leather, S. R.; Walters, K. F. A.; Bale, J. S. (1993). The Ecology of Insect Overwintering. doi:10.1017/CBO9780511525834. ISBN 9780521417587.
  16. Leather, S. R. (2018-01-18). Leather, Simon R; Hardie, Jim (eds.). Insect Reproduction. CRC Press. doi:10.1201/9781351073608. ISBN 978-1-351-07360-8.
  17. "Insects on cherry trees". Pelagic Publishing. Retrieved 2020-01-21.
  18. Leather, Simon R., ed. (2005-12-07). Insect Sampling in Forest Ecosystems. doi:10.1002/9780470750513. ISBN 9780470750513.
  19. "Professor Simon Leather". Royal Entomological Society. 2017-08-02. Retrieved 2020-01-21.
  20. "Harper Adams University professor named president of the Amateur Entomological Society". Harper Adams University. Retrieved 2020-01-21.
  21. "Insect Conservation and Diversity". Royal Entomological Society. 2017-07-04. Retrieved 2020-01-21.
  22. "Annals of Applied Biology". Wiley Online Library. doi:10.1111/(ISSN)1744-7348. Retrieved 2020-01-21.
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