Lord Bach, Minister for Sustainable Farming and Food, today announced the appointment of Professor Jon Ayres as the new Chairman of the Advisory Committee on Pesticides.
Lord Bach said:
"The new Chairman will help continue the excellent work of the Committee, providing sound independent scientific advice on all matters relating to the control of pests, diseases and weeds in crops."
The appointment which will take effect from 1 January 2006 is for a term of three years. The appointment was made through a process of open competition.
Prof Ayres stated that he is "Delighted to have been given the opportunity to follow David Coggon in this important position and to work with such an excellent and well qualified committee.
"The work will be testing, especially with the increasing absorption of European legislation in our processes, but I am greatly looking forward to the challenge."
Professor Jon Ayres is a clinician, trained in respiratory and general medicine, who became a consultant in 1984.
He has always had research interests in the epidemiology, treatment and management of asthma and developed an interest in environmental influences on the lung in the early 1980s.
His current research, at the University of Aberdeen, is focused on environmental exposures and their effects on health, specifically by the inhaled route, his work having concentrated on the effects of outdoor and indoor air pollution both epidemiologically and mechanistically through laboratory based human exposure studies.
He has a good understanding of the strengths and limitations of the epidemiological issues surrounding assessment of the effects of environmental exposures on populations.
Professor David Coggon stands down from the Committee this year.
Lord Bach said: "Professor Coggon has made an invaluable contribution to the work of the Committee during his six years of service. I am deeply grateful for his commitment and enthusiasm in taking forward the work of this important committee."
Professor Ayres is Professor of Environmental and Occupational Medicine at the University of Aberdeen.
He has long experience of membership and chairing government advisory committees having been a member of the Committee on Medical Effects of Air Pollution (COMEAP - DoH) since its inception in 1991 and chairman for the last three years.
He has been a member of the Expert Panel on Air Quality Standards (EPAQS - Defra) since 1996 and a member of COPI and an ad hoc member of WATCH (HSE) for the last three years.