FreshwaterLife Core Group

The Core Group acts as a steering committee and advises FreshwaterLife on policy and strategy.  The Core Group includes founders and representatives from partner and funding organisations.

Core Group Members

Roger Sweeting (Chairman) – Freshwater Biological Association

Dr Roger Sweeting is an Honorary Research Fellow of the Freshwater Biological Association, where he was previously the chief executive for 8 years. He has a BSc in Zoology with Agricultural Zoology and a PhD in fish pathology. Following his PhD he spent four years as a research fellow in fish pathology at Sir John Cass College, London. He is a fellow of the Linnaean Society and a fellow of the Institute of Fisheries Management. He is chair of the BSi Environmental Health Committee and chair of the Comité Européen de Normalisation sub committee, Biological Methods in Water Quality.

His previous experience is with Thames Water (13 years), the National Rivers Authority (6 years) and the Environment Agency (4 years) as a freshwater biologist, regional scientist and fisheries, ecology and conservation manager.

Ian Pettman – Proprietor/Director, Pettman and Associates

Pettman & Associates was formed in 1996 and its mission is to improve global access to information, especially in the aquatic sciences and related subjects. The main focus has been on the development of information architectures and content for globally distributed open information systems. This work has been based on using and developing international standards such as ISO 23950 for information retrieval; the Agricultural Dublin Core; the International Development Markup Language (IDML); Taxonomy Markup Language and XDELTA; electronic multilingual thesaurus construction and taxonomy tools.

Ian has 30 years experience of information services development and management in the aquatic sciences - mainly ecology, fisheries and pollution. He has undertaken reviews and consultancies on the organisation and management of aquatic information services in the UK, mainland Europe, Sub-Sahara Africa, Australasia and for international organisations.

Dr Jeremy Biggs – Pond Conservation

Dr. Jeremy Biggs is Group Manager of Pond Conservation (formerly the Ponds Conservation Trust) and a co-founder of the group in 1988. Jeremy specialises in conservation policy, the development of freshwater biological monitoring techniques and catchment management issues. He is a co-author of all major reports for Pond Conservation and also specialises in studies of invertebrate ecology. He has project managed several of Pond Conservation’s larger projects including the National Pond Survey (1990 onwards), the DETR Lowland Pond Survey and the EU LIFE funded project 'River restoration: benefits for integrated catchment management' (1995-98).

Bill Brierley – The Environment Agency for England and Wales

Phil Henegan (invited advisor) - Syngenta

Rob Shore obo Dave Tickner – WWF-UK

Steve Maund - Syngenta

Steve is a graduate of the University of York (BSc Biology) and the University of Wales Institute of Science and Technology (MSc Applied Hydrobiology), where his studies focused on freshwater ecology and ecotoxicology.
From 1988-1991, Steve worked on an EU Framework project at the University of Wales, developing chronic laboratory toxicity tests with macroinvertebrates. He also worked in collaboration with GSF Munich and Shell Research with pond and stream mesocosms. From 1991-1993, Steve was employed as a Field Specialist in Aquatic Ecotoxicology for ICI Agrochemicals in North Carolina, USA (mesocosm studies). From 1993-2000, he was the Aquatic Team Leader for Zeneca Agrochemicals at Jealott's Hill UK, leading a team specialising in higher-tier laboratory and field studies and aquatic risk assessment.

Since 2000, Steve has been the Global Lead for Aquatic Ecology at Syngenta (the world's largest agribusiness company), leading a team of 25 staff in the UK and Switzerland. His recent research interests include micro- and mesocosms, application of life-history and population modelling to risk assessment, and probabilistic and landscape-level risk assessment.

Stewart Clarke - Natural England

Ian Dunn - Corresponding member

In the past Ian Dunn has been a member of the Core Group and continues to provide help and support to the team.