Gary Kass is an environmental and sustainability scientist and knowledge broker, with over 35 years’ practice, working at the interface of science and policy.  Gary joined the public sector in 1995 as Head of the Environment and Energy programme at the Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology and became Head of Public Engagement with Science and Technology within the UK Government.  Gary joined Natural England in 2007 served as Deputy Chief Scientist between 2014 and 2022 and Defra deputy Chief Scientific Adviser in 2016.  He is now Principal Specialist in Strategic Science.  Gary’s roots in academia include serving on the Natural Environment Research Council’s Innovation Advisory Board and the Research Excellence Framework (REF), where he was a member of the Geography and Environmental Studies sub-panel in 2014 and 2021, with a particular focus on impact and policy relevance.  Gary is a Visiting Professor at the Centre for Environment and Sustainability at the University of Surrey and is a member of Advisory Boards at Imperial College and Royal Holloway, University of London.    

Gary joined the IES in 2013, became a Fellow in 2014, and joined the IES Council in the same year. "I am keen to...take an active role in driving up the standards of science and knowledge exchange in evidence-based approaches to policy and decision-making. I have a particular interest in interdisciplinary, systems-based approaches to applying science to environment and sustainability challenges and to this end... The IES can reach widely across the environmental sciences and across the academic, practitioner, policy-maker divides, helping to move environmental sciences forward and maximise the chances of achieving impact in tackling real-world issues."

Gary was elected Vice Chair in 2015 and served as Chair between 2018 and 2021.  In 2021 he was elected Vice President in recognition of his service to the IES.