The Scientific Advisory Board is in place to give advice on current ideas and projects. In particular we have members with very specific areas of expertise ranging from forestry matters to those of geology. They are a collection of eminent professionals, mostly scientists, who have each consented to advise C-Questor on its activities in the various Sectors in which it operates or intends to operate.  The services of the Scientific Advisory Board members are available to the entire company.

As the company envisages being able to call upon the services of such an eminent team of advisers, it is able to focus on the specific task of taking strategic policy decisions based upon the advice it receives rather than having to employ a large number of skilled personnel directly. This is intended to amount to a de–facto outsourcing of the scientific advisory function with significant financial benefits as a result. In the event that a particular company does not have a particular expertise available in-house this can be accessed through the Scientific Advisory Board.

As the Scientific Advisory Board is not directly employed by C-Questor or any of its companies, they remain independent, and so are more easily able to offer an un-biased view. The board is made up of the following individuals:

Professor Alistair Hetherington – Chairman
Professor Hetherington was born in 1957 and is currently the Melville Wills Professor of Botany in the School of Biological Sciences at the University of Bristol. Previously he was Professor of Plant Cell Physiology at Lancaster University. He has held a Christensen Visiting Fellowship at St Catherine’s College, Oxford, and is currently a Visiting Professor at University College Dublin. His research focuses on understanding how plants respond to changing environmental conditions.

Professor James Briden
Professor James Briden was born in 1938 and has degrees in geology and geophysics from Oxford and ANU, Canberra. He retired from the Directorship of the Environmental Change Institute in Oxford University in 2003. He is a Murchison Medallist of the Geological Society of London and Fellow of the American Geophysical Union. He is Editor-in-Chief of Environmental Science and Policy and retains broad interests in geophysics and environmental issues.

Professor Donald Fraser
Professor Donald Fraser was born in 1949 and is currently Professor of Earth Sciences in the Department of Earth Sciences at Oxford University. His research interests cover a wide range of geochemical problems including silicate minerals, the absorption of biomolecules in sedimentary rocks and the development of analytical equipment.

Dr Peter Henderson
Dr Peter Henderson is the Founder and Director of Pisces Conservation Ltd., one of Britain’s leading consultancies in fish biology, management and conservation. He was for many years a Visiting Researcher and Lecturer in the Department of Zoology, Oxford University.

Professor John Innes
Professor John Innes was born in 1957 and currently holds a personal chair as Professor of Forest Management in the University of British Columbia, Canada. He is also Vice-President of the International Union of Forest Research Organizations. Previous posts include the head of an environmental monitoring unit in a Swiss federal research institute and leader of a research programme in the UK Forest Research Agency. His research interests include the prediction of impacts of climate change on forest distribution, management, productivity and use.

Professor John Kendall
Professor John Kendall was born in 1962 and is now Professor of Seismology in the Department of Earth Sciences at Bristol University. He has previously held appointments as Professor of Seismology at the University of Leeds and Associate Professor in Physics at the University of Toronto. His current research interests include imaging the Earth’s deep interior and studying the geomechanical and microseismic response of reservoirs to fluid injection.

Professor Marc Knight
Professor Marc Knight was born in 1964 and is now Professor of Plant Cell Signalling and Head of the Institute of Plant and Microbial Sciences in the School of Biological and Biomedical Sciences in Durham University. His previous appointment was as a University Lecturer in the Plant Sciences Department of Oxford University. His research interests include the molecular basis of plants’ reaction to disease and adverse environmental conditions.

Professor Niels Elers Koch
Professor Niels Elers Koch was born in 1951 and is currently the Director General of the Danish Centre for Forest, Landscape and Planning. He is also Vice-President of the International Union of Forest Research Organizations. His academic training and subsequent experience cover forest policy and environmental economics. He holds a Danish Knighthood of the First Degree for services to forest research and development.

Professor Andrew Rankin
Professor Andrew Rankin was born in 1948. He is currently Professor of Applied Geology in the School of Geography, Geology and Environment at Kingston University. Prior to this appointment he was Reader in Applied Mineralogy and Head of the Fluid Process Research Group at the Royal School of Mines, Imperial College, London. His principal research interests are in economic geology and applied mineralogy with a particular focus on the nature and origin of mineralising fluids in the Earth’s crust.

Dr Peter Savill
Dr Peter Savill was born in 1939 and recently retired as Reader in Forestry in the Oxford Forestry Institute and Department of Plant Sciences at Oxford University. Formerly he had been a forest officer in Sierra Leone and then he was responsible for silvicultural research in Northern Ireland. He is still active in a number of British agencies concerned with the restoration and management of traditional woodland. His research includes the improvement, management and use of indigenous hardwood species and populations.

Professor Joseph White
Professor Joseph White is Professor of Plant Ecology in the Department of Biology at Baylor University, Texas. His research is in the fields of climate effects on plant ecology and the capture and distribution of carbon.

Mr Peter Wood
Mr Peter Wood was born in 1932 and recently retired as Forestry Adviser in the UK Government’s Department for International Development. Prior to that he had been a Senior Research Officer in the Oxford Forestry Institute and the International Centre for Research in Agroforestry, Nairobi. His research interests included the choice, genetic variation, silviculture and use of tropical trees and shrubs. He was awarded an OBE for services to Commonwealth forestry.