Brian Follett's research focused upon how the environment, particularly the annual change in day-length, controls breeding in birds and mammals.
15 Facts About Brian Follett
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In 1964 Brian Follett moved to Washington State University and joined Donald Farner's group investigating photoperiodism.
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Brian Follett's research focused on the brain pathways whereby birds measure day length and use these changes to change gonadotrophin secretion from the pituitary gland and so regulate breeding.
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Brian Follett became a lecturer at Leeds University then moved with James Dodd FRS to the University of Bangor in 1969, then to the University of Bristol as Professor of Zoology and Head of Deparrment in 1978.
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Brian Follett's studies used, as model species, the Japanese quail and later wild-caught starlings.
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Brian Follett's work included the development of the first radioimmunoassay to measure bird luteinizing hormone in collaboration with Frank Cunningham and Colin Scanes.
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Funding came from the Agricultural and Food Research Council, later renamed the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council, and Brian Follett's group became an official Research Council Research Group on Photoperiodism and Reproduction, with 413 scientific papers and reviews.
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Brian Follett was Head of the Department of Zoology at the University of Bristol for fifteen years, and Biological Secretary of the Royal Society from 1978 until 1993.
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Brian Follett then served for eight years as Vice-Chancellor of the University of Warwick.
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Brian Follett served on the Council of London Zoo and as a Trustee of the Natural History Museum.
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Brian Follett was elected to the Royal Society in 1984 and volunteered as the Biological Secretary for six years, making changes to the organisation and extending the Royal Society University Fellowship scheme.
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Brian Follett has chaired committees for the UK government including reporting on the future of university libraries, research in the humanities, and the foot-and-mouth outbreak of 2001; and on the management and appraisal of clinical academics.
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Brian Follett was a non-stipendiary visiting professor in the Department of Biology, University of Oxford and taught physiology to undergraduates until 2015.
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Brian Follett was a governor of the Royal Shakespeare Theatre, and was president of the Stratford Civic Society.
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Brian Follett's son Richard Follett is an historian and is currently Vice-President and Deputy Vice-Chancellor at the University of Exeter.