Simon Potts is Professor of Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services and Director of the Centre for Agri-Environmental Research (CAER) at the University of Reading.

For a decade, Simon and his colleagues at CAER have been at the forefront of research into the causes of declines in bees and other pollinating insects. In 2017-18 his research broke through into mainstream national and global policymaking, playing a key role in the UK government’s new National Pollinator Strategy for England and leading the way through a nationwide campaign to build public action and support for pollinators.

Simon is an ecologist who has led major studies and policy reviews into the impacts of pollinator declines. In 2016 he co-chaired the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) that published a UN report highlighting the scale of the problem facing the world’s pollinators and suggesting policies to reverse declines. The evidence has informed IPBES’ 2019 report on global habitat and species loss. His own scientific work has not only quantified the risks to different species of bees, but in 2018 demonstrated the annual value of pollinators to UK farmers was approximately £1 billion.