BRITAIN鈥檚 next chief scientist will be an Australian who has spent much of his academic career in the US and is an expert in chaos. Robert May, who was picked by government head hunters, received the Prime Minister鈥檚 blessing this week.
May trained in theoretical physics at the University of Sydney before moving to Princeton, New Jersey, as professor of biology. Much of his reputation rests on his application of mathematics to biological systems. He came to Britain in 1988 and is now Royal Society Research Professor in zoology at the University of Oxford.
Although May is principally a theoretician, he insists that he also has a practical side. 鈥淚鈥檝e always had a taste for mixing basic science with messing about in other people鈥檚 business,鈥� he says. At Princeton, he was responsible for the university鈥檚 science policy and administration, and liaising with industry. In Britain he has sat on the government鈥檚 now defunct Advisory Council on Science and Technology, and is a trustee of the Natural History Museum and the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.
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Ecology is not a bad training for administration, says May: you predict how a system will react to disturbance and then test the theory. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 not a world away from good management,鈥� he says. 鈥淭he aim is to keep the system flourishing.鈥�