Sir John Lawton is Chairman of the Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution, and formerly Chief Executive of the Natural Environment Research Council (1999-2005), and Director of the Centre for Population Biology at Imperial College (1989-1999).

He trained as a zoologist at the University of Durham, and subsequently held posts at Oxford and York Universities.  His scientific interests have focussed on the population dynamics and biodiversity of birds and insects, with emphasis over the last decade on the impacts of global environmental change.

He was elected FRS in 1989, awarded a CBE in 1997 and knighted in 2005 for his contributions to ecological science. He has been awarded numerous other national and international prizes, including the Japan Prize 2004, and was elected as a Foreign Member of both the US National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2008. He is married to Dot, with two grown up children and five grandchildren.