Environmental Microbiology

BIOGRAPHY

I graduated with a Chemistry degree and a D.Phil. in Physical Biochemistry from the University of Oxford in 1966. From there I moved directly to the University of Wales, Bangor as a lecturer in what was then the Department of Biochemistry & Soil Science. The professorial Head of Department was W.Charles Evans who was one of the initiators of the study of aromatic catabolism in bacteria, having started in the late 1930s. It was his research which really stimulated my chemistsl palate by introducing me to bacteria growing on such exotica as chloroacetic acid, naphthalene, phenoxyacetate herbicides etc. I tentatively entered the field and was lucky enough to be working with Pseudomonas putida mt-2 at the time catabolic plasmids were first reported fom Gunsalus'' laboratory. Some of the behaviour of mt-2 fitted well with the presence of a transmissible and cureable plasmid carrying its catabolic genes for aromatics, what we termed the TOL plasmid. Since then plasmids and aromatic catabolism have been the daily task of my laboratory. Currently I have a personal chair in what is now the School of Biological Sciences at UWB and am a Fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology and one of the three Editors of Applied & Environmental Microbiology based in Europe, handling papers mainly covering biodegradation and aspects of microbial ecology.