Les Ruse - Associate Aquatic Ecologist
I’m Les Ruse and have just started at APEM Limited. In my role as Associate Aquatic Ecologist I will be based at home in Reading and expect to use the laboratory in the Dorset Office.
I’m a born and bred Arsenal fan and when we played at Old Trafford last season I came to see Keith Hendry and David Bradley to discuss my involvement with APEM. Born within the sound of Bow bells, I have always appreciated escaping the ‘smoke’ and walking the hills. The day after the APEM meeting I drove to Snake’s Pass and walked to Kinder Scout summit in dense cloud. In fact I’ve combined the same interests since I was a teenager, going to Arsenal away games then collecting insects from Pennine streams before returning to London. I also began scuba diving at 19. I’ve dived around the world but still think British diving is among the best, especially in Scotland.
I have a London University B.Sc in Zoology and Botany with Chemistry (don’t do those anymore), a Cardiff University M.Sc in Applied Hydrobiology and a PhD from Bristol University researching the micro-distribution of chironomid larvae. Before my Aquatic Ecology career began I was a community youth worker in North London, and I've never had a harder job since then! I started with Anglian Water, moved on to Thames Water, the National Rivers Authority and then the Environment Agency. I have mostly worked on water quality monitoring using macroinvertebrates, fish, algae, macrophytes and microbiology, in estuarine, marine and, most of all, fresh water. I am best known for introducing the use of chironomid midge pupal skins (CPET) into the mainstream of UK monitoring methods. I have co-authored the FBA key and guide to CPET, written the European sampling guidelines and developed two WFD-compliant monitoring tools for assessing ecological quality of lakes. For over 10 years I have run CPET training courses and for the last 4 or 5 years APEM have been sending two delegates to one of those courses each year. Every one of those delegates was impressive and a credit to APEM. When my role with the EA finished I thought APEM is a company that appreciates high calibre workers. It feels like I’m in Remote Sensing at present and I’m happy working in isolation (gaining lots of experience) but I look forward to meeting and working with some of the APEM staff at least.
