The Environment Agency has appointed Robert Bradburne as its new chief scientist and director of its “chief scientist’s group”.
Bradburne joins from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, where he was deputy chief scientific adviser and oversaw a team of around 40 supporting Prof Gideon Henderson, who is chief scientific adviser.
The Environment Agency’s chief scientist’s group comprises around 150 scientists and technical specialists working in research, innovation, evaluation, data analysis and reporting, and horizon scanning.
Before joining Defra as a scientific liaison officer in 2002, Bradburne conducted post-doctoral research into wheat-quality genetics at the John Innes Centre in Norwich.
Bradburne replaces Jo Nettleton, who has served as chief scientific adviser at the agency since April.
He takes up his post just over a month after Alan Lovell succeeded Emma Howard Boyd as EA chair.