He joined the Brewing Research Foundation. In 1976, he moved to Rothamsted Experimental Station, studying ways to control insect pests by modifying behavioural activity. He was appointed Head of the Insecticides and Fungicides Department in 1984, Director of the Centre for Sustainable Pest and Disease Management in 2007, Scientific Leader of Chemical Ecology in 2010 and in 2010 became the first Michael Elliott Distinguished Research Fellow, in 2017 he took up a new role as Professor of Biological Chemistry at Cardiff University. Honorary Professor, University of Nottingham, 1991 in perpetuity, The Rank Prize, Nutrition and Crop Husbandry, 1995, Fellow of the Royal Society, 1996, List of Fellows of the Royal Society.|Fellow of the Royal Society Member of the Deutsche Akademie der Naturforscher Leopoldina, 2001, International Society of Chemical Ecology Medal, 2002, CBE, for Services to Biological Chemistry, 2004, Honorary Life Membership, the Association of Applied Biologists, 2004, Foreign Member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Agriculture and Forestry, 2005, Honorary DSc, University of Aberdeen, 2008, Wolf Foundation Prize in Agriculture, 2008, Wolf Prize in Agriculture "for their remarkable discoveries of mechanisms governing plant-insect and plant-plant interactions. Their scientific contributions on chemical ecology have fostered the development of integrated pest management and significantly advanced agricultural sustainability." He delivered the Croonian Lecture in 2008 to the Royal Society on Plant and Animal Communication. Honorary Fellowship of the Royal Entomological Society, 2010, Honorary Member of the Chemical Society of Ethiopia, 2010, Bachelor of the University of Surrey, honoris causa, 2 November 2011, Millennium Award, ASSOCHAM’s 9th Knowledge Millennium Summit, New Delhi, India, 8 November 2011, International Congress of Entomology Certificate of Distinction, awarded at the XXIV International Congress of Entomology, Daegu, Korea, 19–25 August 2012, National Academy of Sciences Foreign Associate, for his role as “an international driving force in the science and application of chemical ecology and in fostering advances in integrated pest management and agricultural sustainability”. President of the Royal Entomological Society 2014-16. 2014, Honorary DSc, University of Surrey, July 2016, Honorary DSc, University of Neuchâtel, October 2016, Honorary Distinguished Professor, Cardiff University, 2016, Honorary Professor, School of Life Sciences, University of Warwick, 2017, Honorary Professor, College of Life and Environmental Sciences, University of Exeter, 2017
Personal life
He married Ulla Birgitta Skålèn in 1970 and they have a son and a daughter.
