Professor Juliet Vickery has been appointed as the British Trust for Ornithology's new chief executive.

Prof Vickery, who is currently the RSPB’s head of international conservation science, said: "To have been trusted with this position is an enormous privilege and a hugely exciting opportunity."

She will formally join BTO in November, working alongside the current chief executive Dr Andy Clements until he steps down at the end of the year.

Prof Vickery has had a 35-year career working in conservation science and academia, including an earlier 11-year spell at BTO, leading work on the conservation and ecology of farmland birds. She is currently President of the British Ornithologists' Union and part of the Government's Darwin Expert Committee. She chaired the British Ecological Society's policy committee for nine years and holds an Honorary Professorship at the University of East Anglia, an Honorary Research Fellowship at the University of Cambridge, and has been a past recipient of the BTO Marsh Award for Ornithology and the British Ornithologists' Union Ibis award.

She said: "In his time as chief executive, Andy Clements has transformed the BTO, steering it through these current uncertain times with clarity and compassion to ensure the organisation remains in good shape. I am looking forward to building on what has gone before, particularly the BTO's extraordinary long-term partnership between professional and citizen scientists, and working to maximise the impact of the unique evidence that partnership generates about the state of our natural world and the threats it faces."

The trust prides itself on the opportunities it provides for people to participate in its work. The data generated by volunteers helps build the base of independent, impartial evidence needed to inform and guide environmental management and conservation, and to engage across public and policy arenas.