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John Pickett

Professor John Pickett

(he/him)

Users
Available for postgraduate supervision

Teams and roles for John Pickett

  • Chair

    Chemistry

Overview

John is Professor of Biological Chemistry with particular interests in chemical ecology involving chemically mediated interactions between various organisms including pests that attack plants, people and other animals.

  • Chemical characterisation of pheromones and other semiochemicals of plants, and animals including insect pests, extending to beneficial organisms antagonistic to pests
  • Stress related chemical signalling by plants and vertebrates including human and farm animals
  • Elucidating biosynthetic pathways to pheromones and other semiochemicals together with associated molecular genetics
  • Exploiting pheromones and other semiochemicals in management of pests and beneficial organisms by ecology management and genetic modification (GM and genome editing)

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Research

The research programme, in Biological Chemistry, is mainly in chemical ecology involving chemically mediated interactions between various organisms including pests attacking plants, people and other animals. Having been the first to characterise, as novel molecular structures including isoprenoids, the sex related pheromones of insect vectors, e.g. aphids, mosquitoes and sand flies, of plant and human pathogens, the chemical characterization of pheromones and other semiochemicals continues to underpin much of the research. This involves sophisticated technologies for capturing and handling the minute quantities of the chemicals involved and use of coupled high resolution chromatography to extremely sensitive mass spectrometry including the ThermoFisher Exactive Orbitrap system for tentative identification. Currently this approach is being directed at the identification of long range attractants of mosquitoes during daytime flight using also GC coupled antennal electrophysiological studies at the single olfactory sensillum level with collaborators in the School of Biosciences. There are other related areas of research:

  • To identify, and exploit in pest management, we study stress related chemical signaling from plants, and vertebrates including human and farm animals, for example on: (i) the natural defense response of maize to pests that leads to increased attack on the pests by parasitic wasps, with collaborators in sub-Saharan Africa; (ii) non-host related signaling against arthropods attacking camels in traditional animal husbandry; (iii) chemical signals for the early diagnosis of the development of fungal and viral pathogens of plant and human health with various collaborators in Europe.
  • Elucidating biosynthetic pathways to pheromones and other semiochemicals, together with associated molecular genetics, involves new studies on the biosynthesis of compounds attracting pests of commercial banana plants, and of irregular homosesquiterpenoids of sand fly sex pheromones in collaboration with Nottingham University.
  • Exploiting pheromones and other semiochemicals in management of pests and beneficial organisms by ecology management and genetic modification (GM and genome editing) involves chemical studies underpinning development of push-pull systems delivering defense against pests (re homoterpenes) and weeds (re di-C-glycosylatedflavonoids) with various collaborators including in sub-Saharan Africa and involving commercial agencies based in South Wales.

Biography

 

John’s contributions to the field of biological chemistry have been acknowledged with the 1995 Rank Prize for Nutrition and Crop Husbandry, election to Fellowship of the Royal Society in 1996, election to Membership of the Deutsche Akademie der Naturforscher Leopoldina in 2001 and the International Society of Chemical Ecology Medal in 2002. John was appointed to CBE for Services to Biological Chemistry in 2004. In 2008 he was jointly awarded the Wolf Foundation Prize in Agriculture. He presented a Royal Society premier lecture, the Croonian Prize Lecture, in 2008, and the Cornell University Lecture in 2009. He was awarded the International Congress of Entomology Certificate of Distinction at the XXIV International Congress of Entomology 2012. He was elected International Member of the National Academy of Sciences (USA) in 2014. In August 2017 he gave the Sterling B Hendricks Memorial Prize Lecture at the 254th Meeting of the American Chemical Society, Washington DC. In 2020, John was elected Fellow of the Learned Society of Wales. In 2026 John, for outstanding achievements as a researcher in chemical sciences, was elected Member of the Academia Europaea.

News articles

Professor Pickett has been recognised for his extensive contributions to ecological chemistry

Professor John Pickett elected to Academia Europaea

19 May 2026

Professor Pickett has been recognised for his extensive contributions to ecological chemistry

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