Yadvinder Malhi, Professor of Ecosystem Science at the School of Geography and the Environment, University of Oxford, has been reappointed for a second four-year term as the Trustee of the Natural History Museum Board in London by UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak.
Professor Malhi said: “I am very pleased to serve for a further four years on the Board of the Natural History Museum. My goal is to support this amazing, respected and much-loved institution in its research and public and policy engagement.
“This can enable it to maximise the contribution it can make, with the unique leverage it has, to tackle what I believe is the most fundamental question of our century: how can we understand and restore our relationship with the natural world so that people and nature thrive within a vibrant biosphere and a stable climate?”
Malhi, who was honoured with a CBE for his services to ecosystem science in 2020, is also Director of Oxford’s Leverhulme Centre for Nature Recovery and a Jackson Senior Research Fellow at Oriel College, University of Oxford.
The UK government’s Department for Culture, Media and Sports (DCMS) announced his reappointment last week, listing his research interests as focussing on how the living world is responding to global environmental change including climate change, how protecting and working with nature can help mitigate and adapt to climate change and how we can enable nature recovery at scale and reverse the ongoing global decline in biodiversity. Much of Prof. Malhi’s research has focused on tropical forests and savannas, but recent work has also explored the challenge of nature recovery in the UK.
The leading academic is a past-President of the British Ecological Society and the Association for Tropical Biology and Conservation and is passionate about increasing global equity in the practice of science and conservation.
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Trustees of the Natural History Museum are not remunerated, and the appointment is made in accordance with the UK Cabinet Office’s Governance Code on Public Appointments. The appointments process is regulated by the Commissioner for Public Appointments. Under the Code, any significant political activity undertaken by an appointee in the last five years must be declared. This is defined as including holding office, public speaking, making a recordable donation, or candidature for election. Prof. Malhi has not declared any significant political activity.