Editing Rothamsted Research (section)

==History==
[[Image:John_Bennet_Lawes3.jpg|thumb|right|upright|John Bennet Lawes]]
[[Image:Rothamsted - Centenary building.jpg|thumb|250px|The Centenary building at Rothamsted Research, finished in 2003|left]]
The Rothamsted Experimental Station was founded in 1843 by [[John Bennet Lawes]], a noted [[Victorian era]] entrepreneur and scientist who had founded one of the first artificial fertilizer manufacturing factories in 1842, on his 16th-century estate, [[Rothamsted Manor]], to investigate the impact of inorganic and organic fertilizers on crop yield.

[[Image:Makers of British botany, Plate 19 (Joseph Henry Gilbert).png|thumb|right|upright|Joseph Henry Gilbert]]
Lawes had Henry King conduct studies on the application of bone dust to turnip fields between 1836 and 1838. In 1840 he hired Dobson,{{who?|date=November 2021}} a chemist. He had experiments conducted with bone ash treated with sulphuric acid and various other mixtures. It is thought that the experiments were at least to some extent influenced by [[Justus von Liebig]] who had attended a meeting of the British Association at Liverpool in 1837. Lawes took out patents on manure mixtures and began a factory to manufacture them in 1843, the same year that [[Joseph Henry Gilbert]] replaced Dobson who had moved to Australia. Gilbert had trained under Liebig and with Lawes's support, he launched the first of a series of long-term field experiments, some of which still continue.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Russeli|first=E. John|date=1942|title=Rothamsted and Its Experiment Station|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/3739533|journal=Agricultural History|volume=16|issue=4|pages=161–183|jstor=3739533|issn=0002-1482}}</ref> Over 57 years, Lawes and Gilbert established the foundations of modern scientific agriculture and the principles of crop nutrition.

[[File:Rothamsted_plaque.jpg|thumb|right|200px|A plaque commemorating 50 years of research, in front of the Russell Building]]
In 1902 [[Alfred Daniel Hall|Daniel Hall]] moved from [[Wye College]] to become director, taking a lower salary to join an establishment lacking money, staff, and direction. Hall decided that Rothamsted needed to specialise and was eventually successful in obtaining state support for agricultural research. In 1912 [[E. John Russell]], who had come from Wye in 1907, took over as director until 1943, overseeing a major expansion in the 1920s, when Sir [[William Gammie Ogg]] took over until 1958 and increasing the number of staff from 140 to 471 and creating new [[biochemistry]], [[nematode|nematology]], and [[pedology (soil study)|pedology]] departments. The site in Harpenden grew to cover {{convert|330|hectare|acres}}.<ref>{{cite web|accessdate=2021-02-21|title=The History of Rothamsted Research|url=https://www.rothamsted.ac.uk/history-and-heritage|website=Rothamsted Research}}</ref> The current director and CEO is [[Professor Angela Karp]].

===Statistical science===

Many distinguished scientists have been associated with Rothamsted. In 1919 Russell hired [[Ronald Fisher]] to investigate the possibility of analysing the vast amount of data accumulated from the "Classical Field Experiments." Fisher analysed the data and stayed to create the theory of experimental design, making Rothamsted a major centre for research in [[statistics]] and [[genetics]]. Among his appointments and successors in the Statistics department were [[Joseph Oscar Irwin|Oscar Irwin]], [[John Wishart (statistician)|John Wishart]], [[Frank Yates]], [[William Gemmell Cochran|William Cochran]], [[Winifred Mackenzie]] and [[John Nelder]]. Indeed, many{{who|date=November 2019}} consider Rothamsted to be the most important birthplace of modern statistical theory and practice.


Partly through these methods, researchers at Rothamsted have made significant contributions to agricultural science, including the discovery and development of systemic herbicides and [[pyrethroid]] insecticides, as well as pioneering contributions to the fields of [[virology]], [[nematology]], [[soil science]] and [[pesticide resistance]]. During [[World War II]], aiming to increase crop yields for a nation at war, a team under the leadership of [[Judah Hirsch Quastel]] developed [[2,4-D]], still the most widely used weed killer in the world.

===Recent history===

In 1987, Rothamsted, the [[Long Ashton Research Station]], and [[Broom's Barn Experimental Station]] merged to form the Institute of Arable Crops Research (IACR). The Long Ashton Research Station was closed in 2002, with some of its staff moved to Rothamsted, whilst Broom's Barn is operated as an experimental farm for Rothamsted.

Rothamsted is now operated by a grouping of private organizations under the name of Rothamsted Research and is mainly funded by various branches of the UK government through the [[Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council]]. Rothamsted Research supports around 350 scientists (including 50 visiting scientists), 150 administrative staff and 60 PhD students.<ref name="AboutUs">{{cite web | url=http://www.rothamsted.ac.uk/Content.php?Section=AboutUs | title=About Us | publisher=Rothamsted Research | access-date=4 April 2012 | url-status=dead | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120306182327/http://www.rothamsted.ac.uk/Content.php?Section=AboutUs | archive-date=6 March 2012 }}</ref>

As well as the Rothamsted site Rothamsted Research operates:<ref name="AboutUs"/>
* Broom's Barn, a {{convert|120|ha|adj=on}} experimental farm near [[Bury St Edmunds]], Suffolk, which is the UK's national centre for [[sugar beet]] research.
* [[North Wyke]], {{convert|250|ha}} of grassland near [[Okehampton]], Devon. It provides a "Farm Platform" allowing research teams to conduct experiments on three {{convert|25|ha|acre|adj=on|abbr=off}} mini-farms. It was formerly part of the Institute of Grassland and Environmental Research.

Its research programme has five main areas:
* Delivering Sustainable Wheat: a co-ordinated and collaborative initiative led by the [[John Innes Centre]] to address critical challenges in wheat health, yield, and production in order to safeguard the future of this vital crop.
* Green Engineering: advancing and exploiting understanding of genetic intervention and metabolic regulation to deliver high value plant products and germplasm for health, nutrition, and a more sustainable future.
* Resilient Farming Futures: combining primary and secondary data, in vivo and in silico experiments, and the development of data science and decision-making tools, to forearm the farming sector and additional stakeholders.
* Growing Health: Towards healthier agro-ecosystems.
* AgZero+: supporting the UK’s transition towards home-grown food production that is sustainable, carbon-neutral and has a positive effect on nature (led by the [[UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology]]).

It also operates:
* The Long Term Experiments and e-RA:The oldest continuing agricultural field experiments in the world. Seven of these Long-term Experiments (LTEs) continue today and provide an invaluable resource for scientists.The online e-RA brings the data from the classical and other long-term experiments into an accessible and useable database.
* The Insect Survey: two national networks for monitoring insect populations in the UK.<ref>Harrington, Richard and Woiwod, Ian (February 2007) [http://www.rothamsted.ac.uk/insect-survey/documents/Outlooks%20on%20Pest%20Management.pdf  Foresight from hindsight: The Rothamsted Insect Survey] Outlooks on Pest Management, Volume 18, Number 1, Retrieved 22 May 2012</ref>
* [[PHI-base]]: a database of multiple pathogen-host interactions.<ref>{{Cite journal 
| last1 = Winnenburg | first1 = R. 
| last2 = Urban | first2 = M. 
| last3 = Beacham | first3 = A. 
| last4 = Baldwin | first4 = T. K. 
| last5 = Holland | first5 = S. 
| last6 = Lindeberg | first6 = M. 
| last7 = Hansen | first7 = H. 
| last8 = Rawlings | first8 = C. 
| last9 = Hammond-Kosack | first9 = K. E. 
| doi = 10.1093/nar/gkm858 
| last10 = Köhler | first10 = J. 
| title = PHI-base update: Additions to the pathogen-host interaction database 
| journal = Nucleic Acids Research 
| volume = 36 
| issue = Database issue 
| pages = D572–D576 
| year = 2007 
| pmid = 17942425 
| pmc =2238852 
}}</ref>