Chris J. Leaver Explained

Chris Leaver
Birth Name:	Christopher John Leaver
Field:	Biochemistry Plant physiology Molecular biology
Birth Date:	1942 5, df=y
Education:	Lyme Regis Grammar School
Alma Mater:	Imperial College London (BSc, PhD)
Thesis Title:	The correlation between nucleic acid synthesis and induced enzyme activity in plant tissue slices
Thesis Url:	http://catalogue.libraries.london.ac.uk/record=b3002655
Thesis Year:	1966
Awards:	EMBO Membership (1982)^[1] Fulbright Scholarship (1966)

Christopher John Leaver (born 31 May 1942) is an Emeritus Professorial Fellow of St John's College, Oxford who served as Sibthorpian Professor in the Department of Plant Sciences at the University of Oxford from 1990 to 2007.^{[2] [3] [4]}

Education

Leaver was educated at Lyme Regis Grammar School and Imperial College London where he was awarded a Bachelor of Science degree (first class) followed by a PhD in plant physiology in 1966.^[5]

Career and research

Leaver's area of expertise is in plant biochemistry, development, plant physiology and signalling;^{[6] [7]} before his current positions, he has at the Department of Botany and Plant Pathology at Purdue University^[8] and the University of Edinburgh.^{[9] [10]} During his career, Leaver held the following positions:

• Botanist on the Imperial College Hornsund expedition,^[11] Spitzbergen, 1962 and Beerenberg expedition, Jan Mayen, 1963
• Fulbright Scholar, Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana, United States, 1966–68
• Lecturer at the University of Edinburgh 1969–80:, promoted to Reader in 1980
• Science and Engineering Research Council (SERC) senior research fellow 1985–90
• Professor of Plant Molecular Biology 1986–1990
• University of Oxford Sibthorpian Professor of Plant Science, 1990–2007
• Head of the department of Plant Sciences 1991–2007
• Fellow of St John's College, Oxford 1990–
• Emeritus Professor of Plant Science, University of Oxford 2008–

Awards and honours

Leaver was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS) in 1986. His nomination reads:

Leaver was also awarded EMBO Membership in 1982,^[1] elected a member of the Academia Europaea in 1989^[12] and appointed Commander of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2000 New Year Honours.

Personal life

Leaver's Who's Who entry lists his recreations as “walking and talking in Upper Coquetdale” in Northumberland.

Notes and References

1. Web site: Anon. 1982. EMBO Member: Christopher J. Leaver. people.embo.org. European Molecular Biology Organization. dead. https://web.archive.org/web/20170805023241/http://people.embo.org/profile/christopher-j-leaver. 5 August 2017. dmy-all.
2. Balk . J. . Leaver . C. . McCabe . P. . Translocation of cytochrome c from the mitochondria to the cytosol occurs during heat-induced programmed cell death in cucumber plants . FEBS Letters . 463 . 1–2 . 151–154 . 1999 . 10601657 . 10.1016/S0014-5793(99)01611-7. 6087038 .
3. Alpi . A.. Amrhein . N.. Bertl . A.. Blatt . M.. Blumwald . E.. Cervone . F.. Dainty . J.. De Michelis . M.. Epstein . E.. Galston . A. W.. Goldsmith . M. H. M.. Hawes . C.. Hell . R. D.. Hetherington . A.. Hofte . H.. Juergens . G.. Leaver . C. J.. Moroni . A.. Murphy . A.. Oparka . K.. Perata . P.. Quader . H.. Rausch . T.. Ritzenthaler . C.. Rivetta . A.. Robinson . D. G.. Sanders . D.. Scheres . B.. Schumacher . K.. Sentenac . H.. Plant neurobiology: no brain, no gain?. Trends in Plant Science. 12. 4. 135–136. 2007. 17368081. 10.1016/j.tplants.2007.03.002.
4. Swidzinski . J. . Sweetlove . L. . Leaver . C. . A custom microarray analysis of gene expression during programmed cell death in Arabidopsis thaliana . The Plant Journal . 30 . 4 . 431–446 . 2002 . 12028573 . 10.1046/j.1365-313x.2002.01301.x. free .
5. PhD . Christopher John. Leaver . The correlation between nucleic acid synthesis and induced enzyme activity in plant tissue slices . University of London (Queen Elizabeth College and Imperial College of Science and Technology) . 1966 . london.ac.uk . 681131873 .
6. Fox . T. D. . Leaver . C. J. . 10.1016/0092-8674(81)90200-2 . The zea mays mitochondrial gene coding cytochrome oxidase subunit II has an intervening sequence and does not contain TGA codons . Cell . 26 . 3 . 315–323 . 1981 . 6276012. 41661616 .
7. May . M. J. . Vernoux . T. . Leaver . C. . Montagu . M. V. . Inze . D. . Glutathione homeostasis in plants: Implications for environmental sensing and plant development . 10.1093/jxb/49.321.649 . Journal of Experimental Botany . 49 . 321 . 649–667 . 1998 . free .
8. Leaver . C. . Key . J. . Polyribosome formation and RNA synthesis during aging of carrot-root tissue . Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America . 57 . 5 . 1338–1344 . 1967 . 5231738 . 224477 . 10.1073/pnas.57.5.1338. 1967PNAS...57.1338L . free .
9. Leaver . C. . Ingle . J. . The molecular integrity of chloroplast ribosomal ribonucleic acid . The Biochemical Journal . 123 . 2 . 235–243 . 1971 . 5001778 . 1176928 . 10.1042/bj1230235.
10. Trewavas. A. Anthony Trewavas. Leaver. CJ. Chris J. Leaver. 2001 . Is opposition to GM crops science or politics? An investigation into the arguments that GM crops pose a particular threat to the environment. 1083916. EMBO Reports. 2. 6. 455–9. 11415971 . 10.1093/embo-reports/kve123.
11. 10.1017/S0032247400055728. Imperial College Hornsund Expedition, 1962. Polar Record. 11. 74. 596. 2009. Anon. 251061959.
12. Web site: Christopher Leaver MAE. Academy of Europe . ae-info.org.