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John Krebs, Baron Krebs

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The Right Honourable
The Lord Krebs
FRS FMedSci
Krebs' official parliamentary photo
Born
John Richard Krebs

(1945-04-11) 11 April 1945 (age 81)[1]
EducationCity of Oxford High School for Boys
Alma materUniversity of Oxford (MA, DPhil)
Spouses
Katharine Anne Fullerton
​
​
(m. 1968⁠–⁠2012)​
Sarah Margaret Phibbs
​
​
(m. 2013)​
[1]
Children2[1]
Awards
Scientific career
FieldsOrnithology
Ethology[3]
InstitutionsUniversity of Oxford
Natural Environment Research Council
Food Standards Agency
University of British Columbia
University College of North Wales
ThesisA study of territorial behaviour in the Great tit Parus major L.
 (1970)
Mike Cullen[4]
Member of the House of Lords
Lord Temporal
Life peerage
28 March 2007
Websitewww.jesus.ox.ac.uk/fellows-and-staff/fellows/lord-krebs Edit this at Wikidata

John Richard Krebs, Baron Krebs FRS FMedSci (born 11 April 1945)[1] is an English zoologist specialising in the behavioural ecology of birds. He served as principal of Jesus College, Oxford, from 2005 until 2015[5][6] and president of the British Science Association from 2012 to 2013.[citation needed]

Early life and education

[edit]

Krebs was educated at the City of Oxford High School, and the University of Oxford where he was a student at Pembroke College, Oxford. He was awarded a Bachelor of Arts (BA) degree in 1966 (automatically converted to Master of Arts (MA) degree in 1970) and a PhD in 1970 for research on territorial behaviour in great tits supervised by Mike Cullen.[4][1][7]

Career and research

[edit]

Krebs has held appointments at the University of British Columbia and the University College of North Wales, before returning to Oxford as a University lecturer in Zoology, with a fellowship at Wolfson College, Oxford.[8][1] From 1988 to 2005, he held a Royal Society Research Professorship in the Department of Zoology, University of Oxford, where he was based at Pembroke College, Oxford. He served as chief executive of the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) from 1994 until 1999.[citation needed]

From 2000 to 2005 he served as the first chairman of the British Food Standards Agency.[citation needed]

On 15 February 2007, the House of Lords Appointments Commission announced that he was to become a non-party political (cross-bench) life peer.[9] Krebs served as principal of Jesus College, Oxford from 2005 to 2015.[6]

Krebs's career has been both productive and influential.[10] His speciality is ornithology. His publications include more than 130 peer-reviewed scientific papers, 5 books, and 130 book chapters, reviews, or popular science pieces.[11][12] They have introduced new methods to the science of ornithology, including the use of optimality models to predict foraging behaviour, and, more recently, techniques from neurobiology and experimental psychology to assess the mental capacities of birds and to relate these to particular regions of the brain.[citation needed]

In 2000, during his chairmanship of the Food Standards Agency, Krebs criticised the organic food movement, saying that people buying such food were "not getting value for money, in my opinion and in the opinion of the Food Standards Agency, if they think they're buying food with extra nutritional quality or extra safety. We don't have the evidence to support those claims."[13]

Having led the randomised badger culling in the United Kingdom trials, Krebs became one of the UK's leading experts on bovine tuberculosis caused by Mycobacterium bovis.[citation needed] The findings of the trials led him to oppose further badger culling in 2012 and he contributed to a paper on the subject written by centre-right think tank The Bow Group.[14]

From 2006 to 2007, Krebs was a member of the Nuffield Council on Bioethics, where he chaired the Working Party on Public Health.[15] He took up the chairmanship of the National Network of Science Learning Centres[16] in 2007.[6] He was a member of the independent, statutory body the Committee on Climate Change, and chairman of its Adaptation Sub-Committee, from 2009 to 2017.

Awards and honours

[edit]

In 2005 Krebs gave the Royal Institution Christmas Lectures on The Truth About Food.[17]

For his scientific research and leadership he has been awarded honorary doctorates by 16 universities.[6] He was elected to the American Philosophical Society in 2000.[18]

He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS) in 1984[1] and a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences (FMedSci) in 2004.[19] He was appointed Knight Bachelor in 1999.[20]

His peerage was recorded in 2007 as Baron Krebs, of Wytham in the County of Oxfordshire.[21]

Publications

[edit]

Krebs publications[11][12] include:

  • Foraging Theory[22]
  • Foraging Behavior[23]
  • An Introduction to Behavioural Ecology[24]
  • Behavioural Ecology: An Evolutionary Approach[25]
  • Animal signals: information or manipulation? (with Richard Dawkins)[25]: 282–309 
  • Animal signals: mind-reading and manipulation (with Richard Dawkins)[25]: 380–402 
  • Arms races between and within species[26]
  • The Croonian Lecture 2004 Risk: Food, fact and fantasy[2]
  • A larger hippocampus is associated with longer-lasting spatial memory[27]
  • Hippocampal growth and attrition in birds affected by experience[28]
  • Hippocampal specialization of food-storing birds[29]

Personal life

[edit]

Krebs is the son of Hans Krebs, the German biochemist who described the uptake and release of energy in cells, known as the Krebs cycle.[30]

Krebs was married to Katharine Anne Fullerton from 1968 to 2012, and married Sarah Margaret Phibbs in 2013. He has two children from his first marriage.[1]

References

[edit]
  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Anon (2025). "Krebs, Baron (John Richard Krebs)". Who's Who (177th ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press. p. 2720. doi:10.1093/ww/9780199540884.013.U23438. ISBN 9781399411837. OCLC 1427336388. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  2. 1 2 John R Krebs (29 June 2005). "The Croonian Lecture 2004 risk: food, fact and fantasy". Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B. 360 (1458): 1133–44. doi:10.1098/RSTB.2005.1665. ISSN 0962-8436. PMC 1569505. PMID 16147514. Wikidata Q24676911.
  3. ↑ "BBC Radio 4 − The Life Scientific, Lord John Krebs". BBC. 21 May 2013.
  4. 1 2 Krebs, John Richard (1970). A study of territorial behaviour in the Great tit Parus major L. ox.ac.uk (DPhil thesis). University of Oxford. OCLC 44837627. ProQuest 1937374303.
  5. ↑ "Elliott Coues Award, 1999: Sir John R. Krebs", Jesus College Record, 2005.
  6. 1 2 3 4 Anon (2005). "Lord Krebs". jesus.ox.ac.uk. University of Oxford. Archived from the original on 13 June 2021.
  7. ↑ Krebs, John; Dawkins, Richard (2001). "Obituary: Mike Cullen: The unsung hero of a golden age in the development of understanding of animal behaviour". theguardian.com. London: The Guardian.
  8. ↑ Clarke, Peter "Editorial", The Jesus College Record (2004), Jesus College, Oxford, pp. 4–5.
  9. ↑ House of Lords Appointments Commission, New non-party-political peers Archived 30 September 2007 at the Wayback Machine, 15 February 2007.
  10. ↑ "ISI Highly Cited Researcher, within top 0.5% of all scientists". isihighlycited.com. 2002. Archived from the original on 20 June 2015. Retrieved 8 June 2006.
  11. 1 2 John Krebs, Baron Krebs publications indexed by Google Scholar Edit this at Wikidata
  12. 1 2 John Krebs, Baron Krebs publications indexed by the Scopus bibliographic database. (subscription required)
  13. ↑ "BBC News | HEALTH | Organic food 'no healthier'". BBC. 1 September 2000.
  14. ↑ "The Bow Group – Common Sense and Bovine TB". Archived from the original on 28 April 2012.
  15. ↑ "Public Health Nuffield Council on Bioethics' official website". Archived from the original on 27 July 2011. Retrieved 25 July 2011.
  16. ↑ National Network of Science Learning Centres Archived 1 April 2007 at the Wayback Machine, UK.
  17. ↑ "The truth about food – You are what you eat (2005) | Royal Institution". rigb.org. London: Royal Institution. 3 December 2005.
  18. ↑ "APS Member History". search.amphilsoc.org. Retrieved 15 July 2021.
  19. ↑ "Professor Lord John Krebs Kt FRS FMedSci". Academy of Medical Sciences. Retrieved 17 June 2026.
  20. ↑ "No. 55610". The London Gazette. 14 September 1999. p. 9844.
  21. ↑ "No. 58290". The London Gazette. 2 April 2007. p. 4781.
  22. ↑ Stephens, D. W. & Krebs, J. R. (1986) Foraging Theory. Princeton: Princeton University Press. ISBN 0-691-08442-4
  23. ↑ Kamil, Alan C., John R. Krebs and H. Ronald Pulliam. (1987) Foraging Behavior, Plenum Press, New York and London.
  24. ↑ Davies, Nicholas B.; Krebs, John R.; West, Stuart A. (2014). An Introduction to Behavioural Ecology (4th ed.). Wiley Blackwell. ISBN 9781444398472. OCLC 898271534.
  25. 1 2 3 Krebs, J. R. & Davies, N.B., eds. (1997) Behavioural Ecology: An Evolutionary Approach, 4th ed. Oxford: Blackwell. (1st ed. 1978.) ISBN 0-86542-731-3 OCLC 815645624
  26. ↑ R. Dawkins; J. R. Krebs (21 September 1979). "Arms races between and within species". Proceedings of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences. 205 (1161): 489–511. doi:10.1098/RSPB.1979.0081. ISSN 0950-1193. PMID 42057. Wikidata Q28237790.
  27. ↑ R Biegler; A McGregor; J R Krebs; S D Healy (5 June 2001). "A larger hippocampus is associated with longer-lasting spatial memory". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. 98 (12): 6941–4. Bibcode:2001PNAS...98.6941B. doi:10.1073/PNAS.121034798. ISSN 0027-8424. PMC 34457. PMID 11391008. Wikidata Q28200649.
  28. ↑ Nicola Clayton; J R Krebs (1 August 1994). "Hippocampal growth and attrition in birds affected by experience". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. 91 (16): 7410–7414. Bibcode:1994PNAS...91.7410C. doi:10.1073/PNAS.91.16.7410. ISSN 0027-8424. PMC 44410. PMID 8052598. Wikidata Q28246244.
  29. ↑ J R Krebs; D F Sherry; S D Healy; V H Perry; A L Vaccarino (February 1989). "Hippocampal specialization of food-storing birds". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. 86 (4): 1388–92. Bibcode:1989PNAS...86.1388K. doi:10.1073/PNAS.86.4.1388. ISSN 0027-8424. PMC 286696. PMID 2919184. Wikidata Q28284520.
  30. ↑ Hans Kornberg (December 2000). "Krebs and his trinity of cycles". Nature Reviews Molecular Cell Biology. 1 (3): 225–8. doi:10.1038/35043073. ISSN 1471-0072. PMID 11252898. Wikidata Q28205069.
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