John Crawford

Change Agent, Educator/Teacher, Parent, Scientist, World traveler, Writer/Editor

I am currently the Scientific Director of the Sustainable Systems program at Rothamsted Research. Prior to Nov. 2013, I was inaugural Judith and David Coffey Chair in Sustainable Agriculture in the Faculty of Agriculture and the Environment at the University of Sydney. As part of that role, I was also Head of Sustainability and Complex Systems, in the Charles Perkins Centre at the University of Sydney, the University’s flagship $0.5B research hub linking food, diet and health. My scientific background is in theoretical biology with a research focus on systems approaches, and I have active programmes of research on the integrated behaviour of the soil-plant-microbe system; microbiology; the structure and dynamics of plant and microbial communities; and in the systems biology of plant, microbial and human cells. Research highlights include the development of a new systems pathology framework for cancer (Nature Reviews), the theoretical prediction and the first evidence for the self-organisation of the soil-microbe system (Science, Nature Reviews, BBC Material World) a general individual-based theory of biodiversity (Nature), demonstration of regional-scale gene flow in relation to GMOs (Nature, New York Times etc.) and the development of the first theoretical ecology of fungi as a paradigm for studying indeterminate systems (Proc. Roy. Soc.). I was invited to become Fellow of the Institute of Mathematics and its Applications in recognition for services to mathematics in 2003, and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 2007 in recognition of his contribution to science. I have published more than 188 peer-reviews articles with over 5000 citations (h-index 41) at the interface between the physical and life sciences.

computational modelling, environmental systems research, Food Systems, Mathematics, Soil Dynamics