Professor Alison Hester FRSB FRSGS is a senior scientist and Baillie Gifford Entrepreneurial Research Fellow at the James Hutton Institute, UK. She did her Degree at King’s College University of London, PhD at Aberdeen University/CEH and a Royal Society Postdoctoral Fellowship at CSIRO Western Australia. Alison has over 30 years research experience (with c200 scientific publications and contract reports) and an international reputation in biodiversity, conservation and land management. Much of her research forms an integral part of large, interdisciplinary projects and she works closely with scientists, land managers, communities and policy-makers in different parts of the world. In recent years she has taken a lead role in bringing together and managing diverse teams of scientists in the highly interdisciplinary research area of natural capital and Ecosystem Services, both within the institute and through a range of international collaborations.
Alison is currently leading a new Climate-Positive Farming initiative for the Institute which is exploring transformative approaches to upland farming, with innovations in technology and in ways of working.
Alison is also a trained, experienced facilitator and project manager (in the last ten years she has been project manager/principal investigator on projects totalling >£15million). She is highly skilled in science communication and networking, as well as an experienced supervisor, trainer, reviewer and external examiner (nationally and internationally). Alison has extensive practical experience in the logistics of international research, e.g. negotiating, establishing and servicing experimental sites in remote areas, community-based management of natural resources, stakeholder consultations, multi-national workshops and policy communications. She works closely with scientists, land managers, communities, policy makers and Governments in different parts of the world and has contributed as an author and advisor for UK initiatives such as the National Ecosystem Assessment. Alison serves on numerous Committees and Steering groups, including the Natural Capital Initiative,and ALTER-Net Council: Europe’s Ecosystem Research Network. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Biology and an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Scottish Geographical Society.
Alison's research interests and experience lie in applied biodiversity and natural resource management, with a particular focus on plant:herbivore interactions, climate and other drivers of change (particularly in forest and upland systems). Examples of her ongoing research include climate-change resilience and adaptation; multifunctional land management; connectivity and networks; current and potential conflicts between land management targets for biodiversity versus changing agricultural and other demands; interactive effects of climate and herbivores driving major global habitat and species changes.
Links:
[1] https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2407-1474