Prof. Field is Emeritus Professor and Deputy Director of the Marine Research Institute at the University of Cape Town, where he studied and obtained his PhD in quantitative marine ecology. Prof. Field is the current Chairman of POGO. He has served as a trustee and scientific adviser to the Plymouth Marine Laboratory, as President of the Scientific Committee on Oceanic Research, and chair of the Joint Global Ocean Flux Study (JGOFS) and deputy chair of GLOBEC. He has also served on the advisory committee to the minister responsible for fisheries management in South Africa. He is best known for his work with Richard Warwick and Bob Clarke on analysing ecological community patterns, the philosophy behind Plymouth Routines in Multivariate Ecological Research (PRIMER), and for his joint paper on the “microbial loop” and the role of microbes in pelagic ecosystems. His interests include modelling foodwebs leading to fisheries, and the application of satellite remote sensing to understanding ecosystem variability, and ecosystem-based fisheries management.