Houghton Trust Trustee

Professor Christine J. Nicol

Christine Nicol was awarded a first-class degree in Zoology and a PhD on the welfare of laying hens from the University of Oxford before taking up a lectureship at the University of Bristol (1985-2017). She is currently Professor of Animal Welfare at the Royal Veterinary College

Christine's primary research interest is the validation of methodologies to assess animal welfare. She has published ~ 230 papers and has authored and edited books on the welfare of horses and chickens. She strives to ensure that animal welfare research is used effectively to improve the lives of farm, companion and wildlife species through membership of working groups and committees, producing reports and reviews for governments and NGOs around the world, and through her membership of the UK government’s Animal Sentience Committee, which scrutinises policies to ensure due regard is paid to animal welfare.

She is an Honorary Fellow of the International Society for Applied Ethology, an honorary Life member of the Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour, and writer and presenter of a BBC radio 4 series on animal ethics called Would You Eat an Alien?

BBC radio 4 series - Would You Eat an Alien?

She has been a member of the Houghton Trust since 2021 and in May 2026 she became a Trustee.