For further details, see my research group's web page.
I did my first degree at the University of Oxford (Worcester College, Botany BA Hons. 1985). My main interest at this time was orchid biology, particularly deceptive pollination in orchids. After teaching Biology at St Bartholomews School, Newbury, I began post-graduate research in The School of Plant Sciences at the University of Reading where I carried out research on pollen-stigma interactions and self-incompatibility in Brassica and related Brassicaceae with Professor Hugh Dickinson. I completed my post-graduate research in the Department of Plant Sciences, University of Oxford (and Worcester College) after the Dickinson Group moved to Oxford in 1991. I obtained my D.Phil. in 1993 when my thesis was the last to be examined by Professor Jack Heslop-Harrison FRS. Following post-doctoral research with Hugh Dickinson, again on pollen-stigma interactions in Brassica carried out as a Junior Research Fellow at Worcester College, I was awarded a BBSRC David Phillips Research Fellowship and a Senior Research Fellowship at Worcester College during which time I initiated independent research on the molecular genetics and population genetics of self-incompatibility in Senecio squalidus (Oxford ragwort). I moved my BBSRC Fellowship to Bristol in 2000 and in 2002 I was appointed Lecturer in Plant Sciences. In 2003 I was made Academic Director of the Bristol Botanic Garden, and in 2004 I was appointed Reader in Plant Sciences. My current areas of research are listed above and in more detail at my research group's web page.