Moredun Research Institute
Professor Alexander (Sandy) Trees - Chairman of Moredun Research Institute
Professor Trees was appointed Chairman of the Moredun Research Institute in December 2011. Professor Trees is a veterinary surgeon who has worked in general practice, industry and academia. He recently retired as Professor of Veterinary Parasitology, University of Liverpool, after a career working in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. He held a number of senior professional positions, including recently as President of the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons of which he is still a Council member. He was Dean of the Faculty of Veterinary Science, University of Liverpool from 2001 to 2008. He has given the prestigious Wooldridge Lecture at the British Veterinary Association Congress and the McCall lecture at the University of Glasgow. He has received the Selborne medal of the Association of Veterinary Teachers and research workers and the Amoroso Award of the British Small Animals Veterinary Association. The major part of Professor Trees’ career has been in academic research and teaching in parasitic diseases at the University of Liverpool, where he held a variety of posts covering a period of over 30 years, commencing in 1980. He has published more than 140 scientific papers and has been active in promoting research and funding for research training, and in the advancement of veterinary education. Professor Trees’ research and teaching has included human as well as animal health. He has made a significant contribution to tropical medicine through his drug development research concerning human river blindness in West Africa and has made major contributions to temperate climate livestock and companion animal diseases, including abortion in cattle and disease threats to travelling pets. He is currently Editor in Chief of the major professional journal and The Veterinary Record. Professor Trees was appointed to the House of Lords as a non-party-political peer in May 2012.
Professor Duncan Maskell
Duncan is the Head of the Veterinary School at the University of Cambridge. Following his PhD studies at Cambridge, he worked at Wellcome Biotech on vaccines for bacterial diseases, then at Oxford on childhood meningitis. He became a Lecturer at Imperial College, working on various bacterial diseases before becoming the first Marks & Spencer Professor of Farm Animal Health, Food Science & Food Safety at Cambridge, where his group, of around 35 people study diverse aspects of pathogenic bacteria.
Ian Duncan Millar
Ian is a farmer from Aberfeldy with arable, beef, hill and lowground sheep. He is Chairman of Highland Glen lamb marketing Cooperative, a Director of the National Fallen Stock Company and a past chair of Scottish Association for Sheep Health. Ian is also a Chartered Surveyor and Agricultural Arbitrator, and is a former President of the Scottish Agricultural Arbiters and Valuers Association. Ian Duncan Millar was awarded an MBE in the 2010 Queen’s New Years Honours List for his services to agriculture.
Professor Alex Donaldson
Alex graduated in Veterinary Science from Trinity College, Dublin University in 1965 and obtained his PhD from the University of Guelph in 1969. He joined the Pirbright Laboratory of the Institute for Animal Health in 1973, retiring in 2002, having been Head of Laboratory for 13 years. He established his own consultancy company in 2003 and since then has worked on livestock disease control and prevention issues in Eastern Europe, the Balkans and the Middle East. He is a visiting professor at the Royal Veterinary College, University of London.
Professor Randolph Richards
Randolph obtained a degree in Veterinary Medicine from the University of Cambridge 1972 and a PhD from the University of Stirling in 1979. His major interests are epidemiology, pathology, control and prevention of fish diseases. He is the ex-Director of the Institute of Aquaculture at the University of Stirling and is currently Professor of Aquatic Veterinary Studies at the same institution.
Professor Eileen Devaney
Eileen graduated from the University of Glasgow with a degree in Zoology, and from the University of Liverpool with a PhD undertaken at the School of Tropical Medicine. She is currently Professor of Parasite Immunobiology and Head of the Division of Veterinary Infection and Immunity at the University of Glasgow Faculty of Veterinary Medicine. Her research focuses on the biology and immunology of parasitic nematodes and she is the author of over 80 publications in this area.
John Kinnaird
John has been a partner in the family farm in East Lothian since 1969. Main enterprises are suckler beef production (with all progeny finished on farm), cereals, pulses, a small flock of pedigree NCC and he is a member of quality assurance schemes. NFU Scotland appointments include Branch Chairman, Lothians Area Chairman, NFUS Director 1998-2007, NFUS Vice President 2000/03 and NFUS President 2003/07. Other appointments include committee member of AgriScot, local Director of NFU Mutual, Deputy Lieutenant East Lothian, Chair of the Scottish Government’s Scottish Appeals Procedure Panel and Guardian member, Scotland Food and Drink.
Professor Charles Milne
Charles was appointed as the Director of the Food Standards Agency in Scotland on 1st June 2009 with responsibility for food safety and promoting a healthy, balanced diet.
Previously, Charles had worked for 22 years in the field of animal health and welfare culminating in 6 years as Chief Veterinary Officer in Scotland. As CVO, Scotland, Charles was responsible for managing the consequences of outbreaks of exotic animal disease, including Foot and Mouth disease, Avian Influenza and Bluetongue.
Sir Muir Russell
Sir Muir has a first class honours degree in Natural Philosophy from Glasgow University. He was Permanent Secretary to the Scottish Executive since its establishment in July 1999, following devolution. He joined The Scottish Office in 1970. He was Secretary of the Scottish Development Agency on its establishment in Glasgow in 1975, and was Principal Private Secretary to The Secretary of State for Scotland (then George Younger) from 1981 to 1983. He was seconded to the Cabinet Office in 1990. He was appointed Permanent Under Secretary of State at The Scottish Office in May 1998, following open competition.
In 2003, Sir Muir was appointed Principal of the University of Glasgow. During his term as Principal of the University he has served on the Boards of UCAS, USS and UUK, and has been the Convener of Universities Scotland. He was appointed as Chairman of the Judicial Appointments Board for Scotland in 2008. Sir Muir retired as Principal of the University of Glasgow in September 2009
He was elected as a fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 2000 and holds honorary degrees from the University of Strathclyde, the University of Glasgow and the University of Edinburgh. He became an Honorary Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow in 2005.