biology

John Lawton (biologist)

John Lawton (biologist) is a biology topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand John Lawton (biologist) rather than just read about it. In short: Sir John Hartley Lawton (born 24 September 1943) is a British ecologist, RSPB Vice President, President (former Chair) of the Yorkshire Wildlife Trust, President of The Institution of Environmental Sciences, Chairman of York Museums Trust and President of the York Ornithological Club. He has previously been a trustee of WWF UK and head of Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) and was the last chair of the Roya…

Key takeaways

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Reproduce the core statement of John Lawton (biologist) from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Sir John Hartley Lawton (born 24 September 1943) is a British ecologist, RSPB Vice President, President (former Chair) of the Yorkshire Wildlife Trust, President of The Institution of Environmental Sciences, Chairman of York Museums Trust and President of the York Ornithological Club. He has previously been a trustee of WWF UK and head of Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) and was the last chair of the Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution. In October 2011, he was awarded the RSPB Medal.

Early life As a child, Lawton was a member of the Young Ornithologists' Club, and later helped run the RSPB Members' Group in York. In his youth, he volunteered for the RSPB's Operation Osprey at Loch Garten.

Career Lawton studied at the University of Durham, completing a Bachelor of Science in Zoology followed by a PhD in 1969. He belonged to University College. Lawton was Demonstrator in Ecology in the Department of Zoology at the University of Oxford from 1968, moving to the Department of Biology, University of York, in 1971. He was awarded a Personal Chair at York in 1985. He founded, and was the first Director of, the NERC Centre for Population Biology at Imperial College, Silwood Park. In 1994, he gave the Witherby Memorial Lecture on 'Numbers and range in the field and in the mind'. In October 1999, he was appointed the Chief Executive of NERC, retaining an honorary professorship at Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine. Following his retirement from NERC in March 2005, he was appointed Chairman of the Royal Commission on Environment Pollution from 1 April 2005, and was reappointed for a second three-year term in 2008. His interests have focused on the population dynamics and biodiversity of birds and insects, with emphasis over the last decade on the impacts of global environmental change on wild plants and animals. He was instrumental in establishing The Royal Society for the Protection of Bird's strategy for protecting landscapes. He has made major contributions to environmental NGOs, including a five-year period as Chairman of the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds and a trustee of WWF-UK. He shared the Japan Prize for Science and Technology for Conservation of Biodiversity in 2004 "for observational, experimental and theoretical achievements for the scientific understanding and conservation of Biodiversity". In 2009 he published an official review of the Meteorological Office's Hadley Centre. In 2010 he reported an official review of England's protected areas, published as Making Space for Nature. Lawton has been outspoken on the issue of global warming and is reported to have said, in the context of Hurricane Katrina:

The increased intensity of these kinds of extreme storms is very likely to be due to global warming… If this makes the climate loonies in the States realize we've got a problem, some good will come out of a truly awful situation. On 2 November 2019, he appeared on the podcast Trees A Crowd with David Oakes.

Honours and awards President's Gold Medal of the British Ecological Society (1987) CBE (1997) Japan Prize (2004) Knight Bachelor (2005) Ramon Margalef Prize in Ecology (2006) Foreign Associate, US National Academy of Sciences (2008) Foreign Honorary Member, American Academy of Arts and Sciences (2008) RSPB Medal (2011) CIEEM Medal (2017)

References

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with John Lawton (biologist)

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what John Lawton (biologist) claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In biology, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to John Lawton (biologist) before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about John Lawton (biologist) ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of John Lawton (biologist)

In research: John Lawton (biologist) appears in biology research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses John Lawton (biologist) in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: John Lawton (biologist) is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1943 births, Alumni of University College, Durham, Biologists of the University of York, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for John Lawton (biologist) outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study John Lawton (biologist) in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what John Lawton (biologist) means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
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Frequently asked questions

What is John Lawton (biologist) in simple terms?

Why does John Lawton (biologist) matter?

Because it connects several biology ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study John Lawton (biologist)?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on John Lawton (biologist).