Plant-Biotic Interactions

BIOGRAPHY

ACADEMIC POSITION:
Senior Honorary Professorial Fellow, School of Biological Sciences, University of Edinburgh

EDUCATION:
• PhD (Genetics) Cambridge University 1968
• MRC Junior Research Fellow, Cambridge University 1968-69
• Postdoctoral fellow, University of Chicago 1969-71
• Honorary Research Fellow, Liverpool University 1971-74

MEMBERSHIPS/AWARDS:
• NERC Senior Research Fellow, University of Edinburgh 1997-2002
• Professorial Research Fellow, University of Edinburgh 1997-present
• Fellow of the Royal Society 2005

EDITORIAL BOARDS:
Heredity, Genetics, Molecular Ecology

RESEARCH INTERESTS:
Evolutionary and population genetics, particularly topics in the general area of the evolution of breeding systems. Linkage disequilibrium in the genome region containing the self-incompatibility alleles of the plant Arabidopsis lyrata, and estimation of this region’s rate of genetic recombination (to test whether it is unusually low, since it contains the two incompatibility loci, one encoding the pollen recognition protein and one the pistil receptor). DNA sequence diversity at other loci in populations of this species, aimed at comparing genomic patterns of evolution with its close relative A. thaliana. Molecular evolution of sex chromosomes, including studies of the evolution of Y-linked genes in the white campion, Silene latifolia.