About the Presenter
JENS JACOB, PHD
Julius Kühn-Institute – Federal Research Centre for Cultivated Plants, Rodent Research, Germany
Dr. Jens Jacob studied ecology and zoology in Jena, Germany and Miami, FL, USA. Since starting his PhD in 1997, he focused on applied rodent research. Following a 4-year position at CSIRO Wildlife Research (Australia), he became the leader of the Rodent Research Group of Julius Kuehn-Institute (Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture) in Münster, Germany.
His research interests include 1) rodent population management that is ecologically and economically sustainable in various systems and various regions of the world, 2) assessing and mediating risk associated with rodent management and 3) the ecology of rodent-borne pathogens to help to take early and optimal action.
Dr. Jacob has published >150 scientific articles, chairs expert groups and is subject editor vertebrates for international peer-reviewed journals.
PROFESSOR STEVEN BELMAIN
Natural Resources Institute, University of Greenwich, UK
Steven Belmain is Professor of Ecology at the Natural Resources Institute, University of Greenwich, United Kingdom. Steve is a long-term advocate for ecologically-based rodent management, generating information on the impact of rodent pests on people’s livelihoods and health and developing sustainable methods of control without the use of poisons. This work is within a One Health framework that relies on multidisciplinary teams to understand environmental parameters and human behaviour with a view to developing ways of changing behaviours that reduce risk of zoonotic spill-over, crop damage and stabilising habitat biodiversity. Steve’s research on rodents was a key component of a Queen’s Anniversary Prize in 2019 for the University of Greenwich. His international research on rodents has led to him advising the World Health Organisation and governments of Bangladesh, Madagascar, Sierra Leone, Hong Kong, the Bahamas and Nepal on rodent borne disease outbreaks and rodent management. Steve has starred in a nature documentary for the Discovery Channel Swarmchasers: Rats! with recent feature articles Eat, spray, love: a day in the life of one of Britain’s 80 million rats, Australia’s Plague of Mice Is Devastating and Could Get a Lot Worse and Rise of the rodent: Is the next pandemic brewing in rats?
