University of York professor wins bioscience accolade
Posted on 19 November 2007
Professor Ottoline Leyser has become one of just 1,200 members of the European Molecular Biology Organisation (EMBO), a group that includes some of Europe’s leading researchers, among them 43 Nobel Laureates.
I am very honoured to be able to join the Organisation and contribute to its important work
Professor Ottoline Leyser
EMBO membership is a lifelong honour and scientists are elected annually on the basis of proven excellence in research.
Professor Leyser and her team are investigating the hormonal control of shoot branching in Arabidopsis, to understand better how plant hormones integrate environmental, developmental, and genetic factors to regulate development. She has been researching the plant hormone auxin for 15 years, and has been a member of the Department of Biology at York since 1994.
Professor Leyser said: "EMBO does an excellent job in promoting and supporting molecular biology in Europe. I am very honoured to be able to join the Organisation and contribute to its important work."
She joins three other bioscientists at the University of York - Professor Dianna Bowles, Professor Belinda Bullard and Professor Guy Dodson, who are members of EMBO.
Head of Department of Biology, Professor Dale Sanders said: "Ottoline’s election to EMBO is brilliant news, and is testimony to her major contributions to our understanding of the molecular basis of plant development. This honour is further confirmation of the continuing excellence of biosciences at the University of York."
ENDS
Notes to editors:
- Ottoline Leyser was born in Bicester, Oxfordshire, and has a BA and PhD from Cambridge University. She held Post-Doctoral positions at Bloomington, Indiana, USA from 1990 to1993 and at Cambridge between 1993 and 1994. She became a Lecturer at the University of York in 1994, a Reader in 1999 and was appointed Professor in 2002. She is married to Stephen Day, and has two children, Francesca, 16, and Joshua, 13 (his birthday is on the 23rd!)
- Ottoline Leyser is Co-Editor of The Plant Journal and is on the editorial board of a number of other bioscience publications, and has recently finished a three year term chairing the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) Genes and Developmental Biology Committee.
- More information about EMBO members at www.york.ac.uk/admin/presspr/pressreleases/embonewmembers.pdf
- The University of York’s Department of Biology is one of the leading centres for biological teaching and research in the UK. The Department both teaches degree courses and undertakes research across the whole spectrum of modern Biology, from molecular genetics and biochemistry to ecology. Its biomedical research includes an Immunology and Infection Unit (jointly with the Hull York Medical School), work on infertility and three research professors funded by Yorkshire Cancer Research and York Against Cancer.