Prof Mike Theodorou is head of Science Development at the BBSRC Institute of Grassland and Environmental Research (IGER), where he has worked since 1981. He also holds an honorary joint Chair at the University of Aberystwyth Institutes of Rural Science and Biological Science (IRS and IBS). He has a BSc and PhD in microbiology and biochemistry from the University of London and his research interests include the microbiology of the rumen, particularly in relation to the life history and role of the gut anaerobic fungi, and the influence that the plant genome has on plant-microbe interactions in the digestive tract of ruminant herbivores.