Expert Details

Biodiversity, Organismal Biology, Speciation, Evolution of Living and Fossil Plants

ID: 729666 United Kingdom

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Expert has published extensively in a wide range of biological disciplines within the broad field of biodiversity. He specialises in evolutionary and speciation mechanisms, drawing on case-studies from both modern botany and paleobotany and using a wide range of analytical techniques – morphological and molecular, morphometric, phylogenetic and population genetic. He has particular expertise on the European flora in general and its orchid flora in particular. He has been employed as a research leader by universities and institutes on both sides of the Atlantic, and since 1997 has gained considerable managerial experience, having been as Director of Science at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh and Head of the Botany Department at London's Natural History Museum. He has also been Head of Policy at the Biosciences Federation, as well as chairing institutional reviews and repeatedly giving oral evidence to the British parliament. Expert has been President and/or Vice-President of several scientific societies, and has considerable experience of editing both peer-reviewed and popular work.

He chaired the first ever external review of the Swedish Museum of Natural History, delivering a 40-page report that substantially altered the goals and modus operandi of the organizationHe reviewed the systematic botany programs and collections at the University of Cambridge: the ensuing report resulted in retention of the extensive collections and ultimately the advertisement of a full chair in plant systematics

Education

Year Degree Subject Institution
Year: 2001 Degree: DSc Subject: Evolutionary Biology Institution: University of London
Year: 1988 Degree: PhD Subject: Palaeozoic Palaeobotany Institution: University of London
Year: 1984 Degree: BSc Subject: Earth Sciences Institution: University of London
Year: 1982 Degree: BSc Subject: Life Sciences Institution: University of Bedfordshire

Work History

Years Employer Title Department
Years: 2007 to 2010 Employer: University of Birmingham Title: Research Fellow Department: Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences
Responsibilities:
He integrated evidence from studies of living and fossil gymnosperms (naked seed plants), with the main aims of understanding the evolutionary relationships of the major groups and determining the origin of the angiosperms (flowering plants)
Years Employer Title Department
Years: 2006 to 2007 Employer: Biosciences Federation Title: Head of Policy Department:
Responsibilities:
He represented the highly heterogenous interests and goals of approximately 60 UK-based scientific societies as an independent lobbyist addressing the UK government and other key policy-makers
Years Employer Title Department
Years: 2006 to 1999 Employer: Natural History Museum, London Title: Head of Department/ Merit Researcher Department: Botany
Responsibilities:
He was responsible for offering leadership, management and high-quality research programmes in a department of approximately 80 staff and postdoctoral researchers
Years Employer Title Department
Years: 1994 to 1999 Employer: Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh Title: Director of Science/ Senior Researcher Department: Science
Responsibilities:
He was responsible for offering leadership, management and high-quality research programmes in a department of approximately 85 staff and postdoctoral researchers
Years Employer Title Department
Years: 1991 to 1994 Employer: University of Oxford Title: NERC Senior Research Fellow Department: Earth Sciences and Plant Sciences
Responsibilities:
He developed and pursued an independent research programme in plant phylogenetics, focusing on fossils and funded by NERC
Years Employer Title Department
Years: 1988 to 1991 Employer: Smithsonian Institution Title: Lindemann Research Fellow (ESUC/RS) Department: Paleobiology
Responsibilities:
He developed and pursued an independent research programme in plant phylogenetics, focusing on fossils and funded by the Lindemann Fellowship of the English-Speaking Union of the Commonwealth/Royal Society

Additional Experience

Expert Witness Experience
He has presented both written and oral evidence to UK parliamentary select committees on topics such as systematic biology and biofuels

Career Accomplishments

Associations / Societies
Numerous.
Awards / Recognition
He is the only person to have been awarded the under-40s medals of both the Geological Society (Earth Sciences) and the Linnean Society of London (Life Sciences)
Publications and Patents Summary
He has edited two scientific books, published approximately 170 peer-reviewed papers and 200 popular works, given 135 conference talks (many of them invited) and 95 institutional seminars

Fields of Expertise

botany, paleobotany, biodiversity, biological species, systematics, phylogenetics, plant (botanical), plant taxonomy, plant identification, plant morphology, plant genetics, plant anatomy

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