John Krebs, Baron Krebs

Early life and education Krebs was educated at the City of Oxford High School, and the University of Oxford where he was a student at Pembroke College, Oxford. He was awarded a Bachelor of Arts (BA) degree in 1966 (automatically converted to Master of Arts (MA) degree in 1970) and a PhD in 1970 for research on territorial behaviour in great tits supervised by Mike Cullen.

Career and research Krebs has held appointments at the University of British Columbia and the University College of North Wales, before returning to Oxford as a University lecturer in Zoology, with a fellowship at Wolfson College, Oxford. Krebs served as principal of Jesus College, Oxford from 2005 to 2015. His speciality is ornithology. His publications include more than 130 peer-reviewed scientific papers, 5 books, and 130 book chapters, reviews, or popular science pieces. They have introduced new methods to the science of ornithology, including the use of optimality models to predict foraging behaviour, and, more recently, techniques from neurobiology and experimental psychology to assess the mental capacities of birds and to relate these to particular regions of the brain.

In 2000, during his chairmanship of the Food Standards Agency, Krebs criticised the organic food movement, saying that people buying such food were "not getting value for money, in my opinion and in the opinion of the Food Standards Agency, if they think they're buying food with extra nutritional quality or extra safety. We don't have the evidence to support those claims."

Having led the randomised badger culling in the United Kingdom trials, Krebs became one of the UK's leading experts on bovine tuberculosis caused by Mycobacterium bovis. The findings of the trials led him to oppose further badger culling in 2012 and he contributed to a paper on the subject written by centre-right think tank The Bow Group.

From 2006 to 2007, Krebs was a member of the Nuffield Council on Bioethics, where he chaired the Working Party on Public Health. He took up the chairmanship of the National Network of Science Learning Centres in 2007.

For his scientific research and leadership he has been awarded honorary doctorates by 16 universities.

He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS) in 1984 He was appointed Knight Bachelor in 1999.

His peerage was recorded in 2007 as Baron Krebs, of Wytham in the County of Oxfordshire.

Publications Krebs publications Foraging Behavior An Introduction to Behavioural Ecology Behavioural Ecology: An Evolutionary Approach Animal signals: information or manipulation? (with Richard Dawkins) The Croonian Lecture 2004 Risk: Food, fact and fantasy A larger hippocampus is associated with longer-lasting spatial memory Hippocampal growth and attrition in birds affected by experience Hippocampal specialization of food-storing birds

Personal life Krebs is the son of Hans Krebs, the German biochemist who described the uptake and release of energy in cells, known as the Krebs cycle.

Krebs was married to Katharine Anne Fullerton from 1968 to 2012, and married Sarah Margaret Phibbs in 2013. He has two children from his first marriage.