Nigel Willby
Professor and Associate Dean of Research in
Biological and Environmental Sciences at the University of Stirling
Having always enjoyed getting wet and muddy a career as a freshwater ecologist was the natural choice for Nigel. However, his epiphany moment came during a field course at Llyn Tegid (Bala Lake) in North Wales during his undergraduate degree in Environmental Biology at Liverpool University. A year as an intern with what was then British Waterways spawned a passion for aquatic plants. This was followed by a PhD on canal ecology, also at Liverpool, in the heady 90s, alongside fellow FBA Fellows Iwan Jones, Laurence Carvalho and Suzanne McGowan. At this point he thought he ought to join the FBA.
After two postdocs at Glasgow on functional ecology of European wetlands and UK rivers, both with a heavy emphasis on plants, plus a brief spell with Scottish Natural Heritage as a freshwater botanist and biodiversity officer, Nigel moved to Stirling in 1999 with a NERC Independent Fellowship and has remained there ever since in various academic roles. He is currently Professor of Freshwater Science and the Associate Dean for Research in the Faculty of Natural Sciences. Until recently he ran a thriving MSc programme in Environmental Management and is a strong believer in the value of field-based teaching. For many years he has enjoyed a close involvement with the Scottish Freshwater Group which celebrated its centenary meeting back in 2018.
Nigel is interested in the protection and restoration of freshwater habitats in their very broadest sense, the connections between them, and in meaningful ways to assess them. His focus includes trait and functional group approaches to species-environment relationships, impacts of invasive plants, the ecological effects of grazers, lake restoration and floodplain ecology. He has worked closely with many endusers and practitioners, including SEPA, Environment Agency, Broads Authority, NatureScot, Natural England, and RSPB. He spent a decade collaborating with a diverse range of scientists from the European Commission and from across Europe on the implementation of the Water Framework Directive, dealing with thorny issues such as intercalibration and nutrient standards, often in the company of fellow FBA Fellows Geoff Phillips and Martyn Kelly. Since 2003 he has run a research campaign exploring the ecological effects of beavers and rewilding more generally, and their implications for freshwaters, working mainly in Scotland but with instructive diversions to Sweden and Finland. Latterly, working with FBA Fellow Bernd Haenfling, he led a team which developed the first eDNA-based ecological assessment tool, focussed on classifying the ecological status of UK lakes based on their fish communities.