Brian Follett

Career and research In 1964 Follett moved to Washington State University and joined Donald Farner's group investigating photoperiodism. His research focused on the brain pathways whereby birds and mammals measure day length and use these changes to change gonadotrophin secretion from the pituitary gland and so regulate breeding. He was appointed a lecturer at University of Leeds then moved with James Dodd to the Bangor University in 1969, then to the University of Bristol as Professor of Zoology and Head of Department in 1978.

He was appointed Vice-Chancellor of University of Warwick in 1993. This made it possible to measure LH in a few microlitres of plasma and so follow circulating hormone levels in individual birds exposed to photoperiods of many types. This enabled the first detailed analyses of the annual pattern of hormone secretion as well as allowing deeper questions to be asked: for example, using gonadectomized quail to show unequivocally that the underlying photoperiodic response in birds (but not mammals) is driven by brain circuits that are switched on and off by day length and to demonstrate that measuring day length involved a daily (circadian) rhythm in photosensitivity with the birds being responsive to light particularly between 12 and 18 hours after dawn. In other words, if light fell at these hours then the day was read as "long", if not then it was read as "short".

In 1978 at Bristol, his research interests expanded to include mammals, notably sheep, and wild birds such as albatrosses, swans, gulls and partridges. Key studies included developing a rapid photoperiodic response system which enabled the detailed study of the neural pathways as they are switched on, the complex structure of the time-measuring system and the action spectrum for the non-retinal light receptors with Russell Foster. In Bristol the focus also swung towards the mechanisms involved in ending seasonal breeding - so-called refractoriness. The photoperiodic response involves both the induction of breeding and it ending each year. The Bristol group found, quite counterintuitively, that thyroid hormones are critical for refractoriness to develop and be maintained. This had been tentatively suggested in the Soviet Union prior to World War II but was developed by Trevor Nicholls, Arthur Goldsmith and Alistair Dawson. Importantly birds are hatched in a refractory state but this is ended by removing the thyroid glands (per Tony Williams). The research group's papers on this have proved of general value in understanding the seasonal control of the neuroendocrine pathways in not only birds but also in mammals.

Funding came from the Agricultural and Food Research Council (AFRC), later renamed the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC), and Follett's group became an official Research Council Research Group on Photoperiodism and Reproduction, with 413 scientific papers and reviews.

Academic administration Follett served as head of the department of zoology (later biological sciences) at the University of Bristol for fifteen years (1978–1993), and Biological Secretary of the Royal Society from 1978 until 1993. He served as vice-chancellor of the University of Warwick for eight years. research in the humanities, and the foot-and-mouth outbreak of 2001; and on the management and appraisal of clinical academics following the Alder Hey organs scandal.

Once retired, he took on the role of chair of the Arts and Humanities Research Council (2001–2009, and chaired the government's Teacher Training Agency (TTA) and its successor body the Training and Development Agency for Schools (TDA) from 2004 to 2010. Follett was a non-stipendiary visiting professor in the Department of Biology, University of Oxford (2001–2019) and taught physiology to undergraduates until 2015. He served as a governor of the Royal Shakespeare Theatre (2008–2018), and president of the Stratford Civic Society.

Awards and honours Elected a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS) in 1984. Awarded 13 honorary doctorates and other awards.

Personal life Follett married Deb Booth in 1961, a teacher who later worked in public radio in the States and then became the production editor for the journals of the Society for Endocrinology. They have two children.