Dave Goulson


Dave Goulson is Professor of Biology at the University of Sussex. Specializing in the ecology and conservation of insects, particularly bumblebees, Goulson is the author of several books, including Bumblebees: Their Behaviour and Ecology, and over 200 peer-reviewed articles. In 2006 he founded the Bumblebee Conservation Trust, a charity that aims to reverse the decline in the bumblebee population.

Early life and education

Goulson's upbringing was in rural Shropshire. He studied biology at the University of Oxford, then completed a PhD in butterfly ecology at Oxford Brookes University under the supervision of Denis Owen.
Goulson has said that when he was born in 1965, the British short-haired bumblebee was quite widespread, but he never managed to see one before they became extinct in the UK. In his book A Sting in the Tale, he described a causal link between World War II and the decline of the bee as a result of intensive farming, pesticide use, and the resultant habitat loss, initially caused by a need to increase wartime food production. "The shorthaired bumblebee died out because its habitats were swept away," he wrote. "It wasn't all that fussy, it just needed enough flowers to feed on: no flowers equals no bees."

Career

Goulson started his academic career at Southampton University in 1995 as a lecturer in biology, where he began to research the life of bumblebees. In 2006 he transferred to the University of Stirling as Professor of Biological Sciences. He was awarded the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council BBSRC Social Innovator of the Year in 2010. In 2013 he moved to the University of Sussex as Professor of Biology. In 2015 he was listed at No. 8 in BBC Wildlife magazine's list of the top 50 "Conservation Heroes".

Bumblebee Conservation Trust

In 2006 Goulson founded the charity the Bumblebee Conservation Trust. He was well aware that too much scientific research was read only by fellow scientists and that there was a need to engage the wider public: "You can publish experiments in high quality journals again and again but they are only read by a few dozen scientists who work in your field. It achieves little or nothing in the real world."

Awards