Nigel Halford

Nigel obtained his first degree from the University of Liverpool in 1983 and a Master’s degree from University College London in 1984.  He studied genes encoding high molecular weight subunits of wheat glutenin (a family of wheat seed proteins) for his PhD while at Rothamsted in the 1980s, supervised by Professor Peter Shewry, then spent 11 years at Long Ashton Research Station near Bristol before returning to Rothamsted in 2002.  He is the author of more than 170 scientific papers, has written books on ‘Genetically Modified Crops’, now in its third edition (entitled ‘Crop Biotechnology’), ‘An Introduction to Bioenergy’, and ‘Acrylamide in Food’.  

His research programme concerns the genetics of metabolic regulation in crop plants, how plant metabolism is affected by abiotic and biotic stress and crop management, and how it can be re-engineered to improve crop yield, quality, nutritional value and food safety. A major strategic application of this work is reducing the potential for acrylamide formation in wheat, potato and rye products. Nigel is Chair of the COST Action ‘Reducing acrylamide exposure of consumers by a cereals supply-chain approach targeting asparagine’ (ACRYRED), which has nearly 300 members across Europe and beyond. Nigel has worked with GM and more recently genome edited plants for more than 30 years and has been a prominent participant in the GM debate in Europe since the 1990s. He has been running a field trial of CRISPR low acrylamide wheat since 2021, when it was Europe’s first genome edited wheat field trial. 

Nigel is a Visiting Professor at Shanghai Academy of Agricultural Sciences and received The Magnolia Silver Award from the Shanghai Municipal People’s Government in 2012. He is also Honorary Treasurer of the Association of Applied Biologists, Special Professor at the University of Nottingham, a former member of the UK’s Advisory Committee for Animal Feedingstuffs (ACAF), a Fellow of the Royal Society of Biology and long-standing member of the American Chemical Society.