Professor Rosemary Hails, MBE

Brief CV

Rosie was educated at Oxford University, receiving her BA Honours in Zoology. She then moved to Imperial College, where she studied for an MSc in Applied Entomology and then completed her PhD in insect population ecology. In later years she also completed five mathematical and statistical degree modules with the Open University. After a couple of postdocs at Imperial, principally focused on the risk assessment of genetically modified plants, she moved back to Oxford in 1992 to take up a post at the Centre for Ecology & Hydrology (then the Institute of Virology and Environmental Microbiology) to study the ecology and risk assessment of genetically modified viruses.

She is currently a Section Head at the Centre for Ecology & Hydrology in Wallingford, a Supernumerary fellow at St Anne’s College Oxford, a senior research associate at the Zoology Department, Oxford University and a visiting Professor at Oxford Brookes University. In June 2000 she was awarded an MBE for services to Environmental Research. She is also a member of the Advisory Committee on Releases to the Environment, a member for the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) Environment Working group, Chair of the Natural Capital Initiative and an associate editor for the Journal of Applied Ecology.

Key research interests

These include the persistence and transmission of insect pathogens, exploiting pathogens for biocontrol, the role of pathogens in regulating insect and plant populations, population ecology of feral crop plants and the risk assessment of genetically modified plants and viruses.

Current professional activities

• Chair of the Natural Capital Initiative
• Member of the Advisory Committee on Releases to the Environment
• Lead author for disease and pest regulation in the UK National Ecosystem Assessment
• Associate editor for the Journal of Applied Ecology
• Ad hoc member for the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA); the Environmental Risk Assessment Panel

Recent publications

See also the NERC Open Research Archive.

Roy, H E, Hails, R S, Hesketh, H, Roy, D B and Pell, J K. (2009). Beyond biological control: non-pest insects and their pathogens in a changing world. Insect Conservation and Diversity 2, 65-72.

Wichmann, M C, Alexander, M J, Hails, R S and Bullock, J M. (2009). Historical distribution and regional dynamics of two Brassica species. Ecography in press. doi: 10.1111/j.1600-0587.2008.05564.x

Wichmann, M C, Alexander, M J, Soons, M B, Galsworthy, S, Dunne, L, Gould, R, Fairfax, C, Niggemann, M, Hails, R S, Bullock, J M. (2009). Human mediated dispersal of seeds over long-distances. Proceedings of the Royal Society Series B. 276: 523-532. doi 10.1098/rspb.2008.1131.

Graham, R I, Rao, S, Sait, S M, Mertens, P P C, Hails, R S and Possee, R D (2008). Sequence analysis of a reovirus isolated from the winter moth Operophtera brumata (Lepidoptera: Geometridae) and its parasitoid wasp Phobocampe tempestiva (Hymenoptera: Ichneumonidae). Virus Genes 135, 42-47.

Robert I Graham, Shujing Rao, Steven M Sait, Peter P C Mertens, Rosemary S Hails  and Robert D Possee. (2007). Characterisation and sequence analysis of two novel cypoviruses isolated from the Winter moth Operophtera brumata (Lepidoptera: Geometridae). Virus Genes, 35, 463-471.

Hails, RS and Timms-Wilson, T. (2007). Genetically modified organisms as invasive species? pp 293-310 In: Biological Invasions ed. by W. Nentwig, Springer.

Raymond, B and Hails, R S. (2007). Variation in plant resource quality and the transmission and fitness of the winter moth, Operophtera brumata NPV. Biological Control 41, 237-245.

Vanbergen, A J, Jones, T H, Hails, R S, Watt, A D and Elston, D. (2007). Consequences for a host-parasitoid interaction of host-plant aggregation, isolation and phenology. Ecological Entomology, 32, 419-427.

Raymond, B, Sayyed, A H, Hails, R S and Wright, D J. (2007). Exploiting pathogens and their impact on fitness costs to manage the evolution of resistance to Bacillus thuringiensis. Journal of Applied Ecology, 44, 768-780

Vanbergen, A J, Hails, R S, Watt, A D and Jones, T H. (2006). Consequences for host-parasitoid interactions of grazing-dependent habitat heterogeneity. Journal of Animal Ecology, 75, 789-801.

Burden, J P, Possee, R D, Sait, S M, King, L A and Hails, R S. (2006). Phenotypic and genotypic characterisation of persistent baculovirus infections in populations of the cabbage moth (Mamestra brassicae) within the British Isles. Archives of Virology 151(4), 635-649.

Hails, R S and Morley, K. (2005). Genes invading new populations: a risk assessment perspective. Trends in Ecology and Evolution, 20, 245-252.

Bonsall, M B, Sait, S M and Hails, R S. (2005). Invasion and dynamics of covert infection strategies in structured populations. Journal of Animal Ecology, 74, 464-474.

Bonsall, M B, O'Reilly, D R, Cory, J S and Hails, R S. (2005). Persistence and coexistence of engineered nuclear polyhedrosis viruses. Theoretical Population Biology, 67, 217-230