Mike Birkett

Mike is a biological / organic chemist with more than 27 years’ experience in the chemical ecology of pest-host interactions. He currently leads research on ecology-inspired solutions for next generation pest management, with his group providing a core of expertise in biological and organic chemistry, chemical ecology, microbiomes, plant signalling and biological control.

Mike was instrumental in leading the formulation and testing of hypotheses relating to the role of pheromones and other chemical signals affecting insect pest and natural enemy behaviour, early onset of pest status in crop plants and emission of plant defence signalling, the role of lipid-derived, small lipophilic molecule elicitors of plant defence, the production of novel pheromones and other chemical signals by sustainable routes, and the ecological basis of ectoparasite repellency in vertebrates.

Mike is dedicated to delivering social and economic impact from his groups research and is actively involved in agribusiness and stakeholder engagement to ensure that new ecology-inspired interventions for pest management are being developed.

Mike is also committed to exploring potential commercialisation opportunities from his research, and together with colleagues at Rothamsted Research, in 2020 he co-founded PheroSyn, a spin-out company, with the aim of exploiting outputs from his groups research.