Professor Ian Graham graduated from The Queen’s University of Belfast with a first class honours degree in Botany and Genetics in 1986. He obtained his PhD in Plant Molecular Biology from the University of Edinburgh in 1989, after which he went on to do postdoctoral research at The University of Oxford and The Carnegie Institution Plant Biology Laboratory at Stanford University. He took up his first faculty position at The University of Glasgow in 1993 and moved to The University of York in 1999 where he holds the Weston Chair of Biochemical Genetics and is the current Director of The Centre for Novel Agricultural Products (CNAP: www.cnap.org.uk). CNAP is dedicated to realising the potential of plant-based renewable resources to make products needed by society, and, as a mark of its success since being established in 1999, CNAP was awarded a Queen’s Anniversary Prize for Higher and Further Education in 2006. Much of the work in the Graham laboratory is aimed at understanding the biochemical basis of how different compounds are produced in plants and using this knowledge to improve production of valuable compounds in existing crops or in the development of new crops. Current projects range from the development of novel oilcrops such as Jatropha curcas to the production of new varieties of Artemisia annua that deliver higher yields of the anti-malarial compound artemisinin.
Ian currently serves on the governing council of the John Innes Centre, Norwich – a UK flagship centre for plant and crop science. He is also an Honorary Research Fellow at Rothamsted Research, Harpenden – the very prestigious and oldest plant breeding research station in the world. Ian has served on a number of UK government bodies that inform policy relevant to plant and crop science, including the Defra Non-Food Crops Strategy Project Board, the BBSRC Crop Science Review panel and the BBSRC Bioenergy review panel. Additionally he is active on international committees including being a member of the Scientific Advisory Board of Genoplante – a French Government funded initiative in public-private plant and crop science research.
JatrophaWorld 2009 Brussels Speaker
Day 2 – Thursday, October 15
11:05 MOLECULAR AND BIOCHEMICAL ANALYSIS OF TOXIC AND NON-TOXIC LINES
JATROPHAWORLD 2009 is a showcase of all the latest trends and shifts occurring in the Jatropha value chain, bringing together on a single platform, the best expertise to discuss and analyze the present and future dynamics of Jatropha from a technological and socio-economic angle. To find more about JatrophaWorld in Brussels from October 14 to 15, 2009, please visit http://www.futureenergyevents.com/jatropha/.