I graduated from the University of St Andrews with a BSc in Botany in 1979 and remained there to carry out research leading to a PhD (1982) under the supervision of Prof Bob Crawford (Botany) and Dr Ian Hunter (Biochemistry) in the area of lipid metabolism under anoxic stress. After St Andrews I moved to the University of Edinburgh for two years where I carried out post-doctoral research with Prof Tony Trewavas FRS on calcium activated protein kinases. This appointment stimulated my interest in intracellular signalling and in 1984 I moved to the University of Lancaster as a “New Blood Lecturer”. At Lancaster I collaborated with Prof Terry Mansfield FRS who introduced me to guard cells, and as a result, investigating signal transduction in these cells has been the major focus of my research ever since. In 1994 I was appointed to a personal Chair in Plant Cell Physiology at Lancaster and twelve years later, in 2006, I was appointed to the Melville Wills Chair of Botany at the University of Bristol. I am currently Research Director for the Faculty of Science

Guard Cell Group