George C. McGavin | |
|---|---|
 McGavin looking for insects in a hollowed-out log in Borneo | |
| Born | 1954 Glasgow, Scotland |
| Alma mater | |
| Occupations |
|
George C. McGavin FLS FRGS Hon. FRSB Hon. FRES [1] (born 1954, in Glasgow, Scotland) [2] is a British entomologist, author, academic, television presenter and explorer. [3] [4] [5] [6]
McGavin attended Daniel Stewart's College, a private school in Edinburgh, [7] then studied Zoology at the University of Edinburgh from 1971 to 1975, followed by a PhD in entomology at Imperial College, London. [6] He went on to teach and research at the University of Oxford. [8] He is Honorary Research Associate at Oxford University Museum of Natural History [3] [4] and the Department of Zoology of Oxford University, where he lists his interests as "Terrestrial arthropods especially in tropical forests, caves and savannah. Public understanding of science. Exploration." [9] He is also a visiting professor of entomology at the University of Derby. [6]
McGavin is a Fellow of the Linnean Society and of the Royal Geographical Society, and has several insect species named in his honour. [3] [10] [11] He was previously Assistant Curator of Entomology at Oxford University's Museum of Natural History. [12] [13]
McGavin has lectured at the Cheltenham Science Festival, [13] given the Royal Geographical Society children's Christmas lecture and contributes to their Schools Programme. He won Earthwatch's "Irreplaceable – The World's Most Invaluable Species" debate, broadcast on BBC Radio 4, in 2008 [14] and he is a lecturer on board Cunard ships. [15] In 2017 he gave the Royal Entomological Society's Verrall Lecture speaking on 'Tales from television: an entomologist's perspective' [16]
He is a patron of the charity Wildscreen, [17] of the Bees, Wasp and Ants Recording Scheme and of the Alderney Records Centre;, [18] he is president of Dorset Wildlife Trust [19] and is a Global Ambassador for Earthwatch.
He enjoys eating insects, which he describes as "flying prawns". [10]
McGavin was a presenter for the BBC and Discovery Channel US series Expedition Borneo (2007), and was co-presenter of the BBC series Expedition, for which he has conducted three expeditions: Lost Land of the Jaguar (2008), Lost Land of the Volcano (2009), and Lost Land of the Tiger , in Bhutan (2010). [5] [12] [20] He is also a regular contributor to The One Show (BBC1) and has appeared on the Richard & Judy show to cook and eat insects. [21]
He was Series Consultant and a contributor on Infested (Granada/ITV, 2002) [21] and was the Chief Scientific Consultant for the David Attenborough series Life in the Undergrowth . [5]
His other TV appearances include What's up Doc? (STV), Tomorrow's World (BBC), Package Holiday Undercover (ITV), Facing the Music (BBC), Take One Museum (Channel 4) and various national and local news programmes.
His programme Afterlife: The Science of Decay was screened by the BBC on 6 December 2011. [22] [23]
From July 2011, another BBC programme, The Dark, about the nocturnal activities of animals, was produced. [24] This started transmission on BBC2 on 29 July 2012 and on BBC HD a day later. In October 2012, he appeared, with co-presenter Dr Alice Roberts in the BBC series Prehistoric Autopsy . [25] In 2013 he presented Planet Ant: Life Inside the Colony. In 2014, he presented Monkey Planet and a two-part series on BBC Four: Dissected: The Incredible Human Hand and Dissected: The Incredible Human Foot. [26]
In October 2017, McGavin presented a one-off BBC documentary Oak Tree: Nature's Greatest Survivor. [27]
In 2018 McGavin and Zoe Laughlin made a BBC Four documentary The Secret Life of Landfill: A Rubbish History, exploring the fate and future of rubbish deposited in landfill sites. [28] [29] He also presented Nature's Turtle Nursery: Secrets from Inside the Nest. [30]
In 2020, McGavin and Helen Czerski presented a 90-minute BBC Four documentary called Ocean Autopsy: The Secret Story of Our Seas which concerned the changes both in North Sea and in the world's oceans. [31]
In 2024, McGavin made a guest appearance in the promotion leading up to the release of Helldivers 2 , playing a scientist in a comedic advertisement for the game. [32]
McGavin was the guest on the long-running Desert Island Discs a BBC Radio 4 programme on 7 February 2021, hosted by Lauren Laverne, where he talked about the challenge he faced in his childhood with a severe stutter. [33] [34]
Entomology is the scientific study of insects, a branch of zoology. In the past the term insect was less specific, and historically the definition of entomology would also include the study of animals in other arthropod groups, such as arachnids, myriapods, and crustaceans. This wider meaning may still be encountered in informal use.
Heather Anita Couper, was a British astronomer, broadcaster and science populariser.
William Kirby was an English entomologist, an original member of the Linnean Society and a Fellow of the Royal Society, as well as a country rector, so that he was an eminent example of the "parson-naturalist". The four-volume Introduction to Entomology, co-written with William Spence, was widely influential.
Hemimetabolism or hemimetaboly, also called partial metamorphosis and paurometabolism, is the mode of development of certain insects that includes three distinct stages: the egg, nymph, and the adult stage, or imago. These groups go through gradual changes; there is no pupal stage. The nymph often has a thin exoskeleton and resembles the adult stage but lacks wings and functional reproductive organs. The hemimetabolous insects differ from ametabolous taxa in that the one and only adult instar undergoes no further moulting.
Nicholas Rowan Baker is an English naturalist and television presenter, notably on Children's BBC's The Really Wild Show.
Dominic Couzens is a leading nature writer, tour leader and lecturer based in the UK. He is the named author on 45 books, writes three regular magazine columns, and to date, has had more than 700 published articles.
The Royal Entomological Society is a learned society devoted to the study of insects. It aims to disseminate information about insects and to improve communication between entomologists.
The Heptageniidae are a family of mayflies with over 500 described species mainly distributed in the Holarctic, Oriental, and Afrotropical regions, and also present in the Central American Tropics and extreme northern South America. The group is sometimes referred to as flat-headed mayflies or stream mayflies. These are generally rather small mayflies with three long tails. The wings are usually clear with prominent venation although species with variegated wings are known. As in most mayflies, the males have large compound eyes, but not divided into upper and lower parts.
Anton Vamplew, is an English amateur astronomer, author, lecturer and media presenter of the subject.
Alice May Roberts is an English academic, TV presenter and author. Since 2012 she has been Professor of Public Engagement in Science at the University of Birmingham. She was president of the charity Humanists UK between January 2019 and May 2022. She is now a vice-president of the organisation.
Stuart Nigel Henbest is a British astronomer and science communicator. Born in Manchester and educated in Belfast and at Leicester University, Henbest researched in radio astronomy at the University of Cambridge before becoming a freelance author, television producer and astronomy lecturer. Asteroid 3795 Nigel is named after him.
Lost Land of the Tiger is a three-part nature documentary series produced by the BBC Natural History Unit which follows a scientific expedition to the Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan. The expedition team is made up of specialist zoologists, explorers and the BBC crew. Together, they explore wilderness areas from the lowland jungles to high-elevation slopes, in search of rare animals and plants. The focus of the expedition is to investigate the status of the tiger in Bhutan, where little is known of the cat's distribution or population density. Evidence of a healthy population of tigers would elevate Bhutan's importance as a sanctuary for this endangered species. It would also support tiger conservationist Dr. Alan Rabinowitz's proposal for a vast protected corridor linking the fragmented pockets of tiger habitat which lie to the south of the Himalayas.
Ross Piper is a British zoologist, entomologist, and explorer.
Lost Land of the Jaguar is a 2008 British nature documentary series on the fauna of Guyana's rainforest. The four presenters are George McGavin, Steve Backshall, Justine Evans, and Gordon Buchanan. The series is a production of the BBC Natural History Unit, and was premiered on 30 July and ended on 13 August 2008. It has three episodes, each 58 minutes long. The series received a Science and Natural History reward from the Royal Television Society.
Erica McAlister Hon.FRES is an entomologist, museum curator and presenter in the United Kingdom. She is an expert in flies (Diptera) and is senior curator at the Natural History Museum, London. She is a past President of the Amateur Entomologists' Society.
Adam Hart is an English scientist, author and broadcaster, specialising in ecology, entomology and conservation, especially in southern Africa. He has co-presented three BBC TV documentaries on social insects. Hart has written and presented numerous BBC Radio 4 and BBC World Service documentaries and written more than 120 scientific papers.
Prehistoric Autopsy is a 2012 British television documentary film series shown in three one-hour episodes on BBC Two. The series is about human evolution and is narrated by biologist George McGavin and anatomist Alice Roberts. Graeme Thomson is the series producer and Jane Aldous is the executive producer.
John Farndon is a British writer of books, plays and music. He is best known as a writer of, and contributor to, science books for children.
Sarah Beynon is an entomologist, ecologist and presenter in the UK. She is a senior research associate at the University of Oxford and is founder of The Bug Farm.
Karim Vahed FRES is a British entomologist. He is a professor of entomology and England manager at invertebrate conservation charity Buglife, and is an expert in crickets and bushcrickets (katydids).
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Other | |
