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Introduction

I went to Buckswood School in East Sussex and then studied for the International Baccalaureate at Bexhill College. I next studied for a BSc in Environmental Science (University of Portsmouth), followed by an MSc in Ecology, Evolution and Conservation (Imperial College London). After time spent at the Natural History Museum (London) and Kew Gardens, I completed a PhD in Plant Sciences at the University of Essex. I then spent three years as a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Bristol. In 2024, I joined the University of Oxford as a Glasstone Research Fellow in Plant Sciences and Extraordinary Junior Research Fellow at Queen’s.

Research

My research is broadly interested in understanding the extraordinary diversity of life. In particular, this focusses on plants and their changing relationships with water over the last billion years of evolution. In my work, I use a range of molecular, computational and morphological analyses of living and fossil plants. These experiments aim to answer questions about how plant innovations originated millions of years ago, how they work today, and how they might be (mal)adaptive in the future. 

Publications

  • Bowles, A.M.C. Bechtold, U. & Paps, J. (2020) The origin of land plants is rooted in two bursts of genomic novelty. Current Biology 30 (3), 530-536.
  • Bowles, A.M.C. Paps, J. & Bechtold, U. (2022) Water‐related innovations in land plants evolved by different patterns of gene cooption and novelty. New Phytologist 235 (2), 732-742.
  • Bowles, A.M.C. Williamson, C.J. Williams, T.A. Lenton, T.M. & Donoghue, P.C.J. (2023) The origin and early evolution of plants. Trends in Plant Science 28 (3), 312-323.

An up-to-date list of Alex’s publications is available here.

Admissions

Six students are normally admitted to Queen’s each year.

The course

Biology is a single Honours degree course with the option of staying for a fourth year and graduating with an MBiol and is taught jointly by the newly-formed Department of Biology. Course details can be found on the Department’s website and the University’s Admissions page.

Teaching

Most teaching takes place in departments, but tutorials are offered in colleges. Colleges vary in how they provide tutorial teaching but you will enjoy a highly personalised experience, as your College tutors can track your progress and offer appropriate support. You will also benefit from learning in a small group, where you can easily ask questions and learn from your peers. Your choice of College does not in any way restrict what kind of tutorials you can have or which supervisor you can choose for your fourth-year project.

First year: all first-year tutorials take place at Queen’s.  The biology tutors have complementary skills and can provide support across the entire first-year course. We also enjoy trips to the Natural History Museum and Wytham Woods. 

Second year: specialist teaching is available for some topics, while for others you can choose from a wide range of tutors across the University. We also offer support at Queen’s for research skills training, especially statistics, and an opportunity to practise your poster presentation – an examined component of the degree.

Third year: specialist teaching is available for some topics, while for others you can choose from a wide range of tutors across the University. We also offer support for the oral presentation, which is an examined component of the degree.

Fourth year: if you choose to stay for the fourth year, you will most likely end up with a supervisor beyond the college, who closely matches your research interests. However, your college tutor will remain an important point of contact.

There are two biology tutors at Queen’s: Lindsay Turnbull is Professor of Plant Ecology. Her research includes ecological theory, symbiosis, conservation and management. Steve Kelly is Associate Professor in Plant Sciences. His research is focussed on photosynthesis, evolution, gene expression and bioinformatics. Lindsay and Steve are highly complementary in terms of their research interests. In addition, Jane Langdale CBE FRS is a senior member of the college who works on plant development and the C4 rice project, which strives to increase the productivity of rice through genetic engineering. 

Biologists at Queen’s tend to be a close-knit group. Two big events are held each year: a Christmas drinks party and an end-of-year dinner for all year groups. You can expect support from your tutors with essay-writing, revising for exams, and practising for presentations.

Interviews

At interview we aim to get the best out of you – so there are no trick questions. You will be asked to think about several biological problems and apply your knowledge and skills to a scenario you may not have encountered before. We would like to see how you think and how you engage with both the question and the tutor.

The entry requirements for Biology are standardised across the University.

Courses

  • MBiol (from 2019)


Introduction

I was educated at my local comprehensive school from 11 to 16 and attended a private school for sixth form. I obtained my first degree from Cambridge and a PhD from Imperial, London where I then spent a further three years as a junior researcher. I then studied for a postgraduate certificate in education (PGCE) and spent three years teaching in a large state secondary school in London. Following this I moved to Zurich where I spent 10 years running a small research group. In 2013 I returned to the UK to take up my current position in Oxford. 

Teaching

I am passionate about teaching. In contrast to many colleges, I give most of the first-year tutorials to the Queen’s students myself. These involve the standard essay writing and discussion but also additional activities centred on my extensive natural history collection! I give quantitative methods (QM) tutorials to the second years and prepare the third years for both the general and the data interpretation papers.

Research

I am an ecologist with a particular focus on plants. I have engaged with a broad range of topics, but at the moment I am particularly interested in how plant species coexist and in the symbiotic relationships between algae and other organisms. These relationships allow many other organisms, apart from plants, to take advantage of photosynthesis. I have several DPhil students in my research group working on a diverse range of topics. In addition, I usually supervise a small number of undergraduate projects.

Publications

  • Is ‘Peak N’ key to understanding the timing of flowering in annual plants, New Phytologist (205) 2015, 918-927
  • Land-use intensity and the effects of organic farming on biodiversity: a hierarchical meta-analysis, Journal of Applied Ecology (51) 2014, 746-755
  • Ecology’s dark matter: the elusive and enigmatic niche, Basic and Applied Ecology (15) 2014, 93-100
  • Coexistence, niches, and the effects of biodiversity on ecosystem functioning, Ecology Letters (16) 2013, 116-127
  • Identification of 100 fundamental ecological questions, Journal of Ecology (101) 2013, 58-67
  • Natural enemies drive geographic variation in plant defenses, Science (338) 2012 116-119
  • Adaptation and extinction in experimentally fragmented landscapes, PNAS (107) 2010, 19120-19125

Watch Biology: The Whole Story on YouTube

Introduction

I went to a grammar school in Coventry and then on to an undergraduate degree in Applied Biology at the University of Bath. My PhD was in human genetics and was carried out at St Mary’s Hospital Medical School London. It was after my PhD that I developed an interest in plant genetics and I went to Yale University for five years to carry out postdoctoral research. In 1990 I returned to the UK to set up my own research group in the Department of Plant Sciences at Oxford. I was the Tutorial Fellow in Biology at Queen’s from 1994 until I became a Senior Research Fellow in 2006 and then a Professorial Fellow in 2016. I have been a member of Governing Body since 1994.

Teaching

I lecture in the third year of the Biological Sciences BA where I run a module on the evolution of developmental mechanisms in plants. I give tutorials in basic genetics and plant developmental biology.

Research

My research is focussed on understanding the genetic mechanisms that underpin the formation of leaves. In this context, we are contributing to a multinational project that aims to create a more highly yielding ‘C4’ rice. For more details and a complete list of publications see: www.langdalelab.com and www.c4rice.com.

Publications

Selected publications

  • Sedelnikova, O.V., Hughes, T.E. & Langdale J.A. (2018) Understanding the Genetic Basis of C4 Kranz Anatomy with a View to Engineering C3 Crops. Annual Reviews in Genetics 52, 249-270.
  • Wang, P., Khosravesh, R., Karki, S., Tapia, R., Balahadia, C.P., Bandyopadhyay, A., Quick, W.P., Furbank, R., Sage, T.L. & Langdale, J.A. (2017) Re-creation of a key step in the evolutionary switch from C3 to C4 leaf anatomy. Current Biology 27, 3278-3287.
  • Langdale, J.A. (2011) C4 cycles: past present and future research on C4 photosynthesis. The Plant Cell 23, 3879-3892.

Introduction          

I went to Sandford Park School in Dublin, Ireland, and studied for my undergraduate degree at the University of Dublin, Trinity College. I moved to Oxford in 2003 to do my DPhil in the Sir William Dunn School of Pathology. Following my DPhil I spent a short post-doctoral period in the Oxford Centre for Integrative Systems Biology and the Centre for Mathematical Biology before taking up a Leverhulme Early Career Fellowship and Browne Junior Research Fellowship at the Department of Plant Sciences and The Queen’s College, respectively.

I am now a Fellow in Biology at Queen’s and hold a Royal Society University Fellowship at the Department of Plant Sciences. In addition, I am Associate Director of the Oxford Centre for Plant Science Innovation and editor-in-chief of Biology Open.

Teaching

I teach across a range of subjects in the biological sciences from plant domestication, to photosynthesis, to computational approaches to understanding gene regulatory networks.

Research

Plants convert solar energy into chemical energy through photosynthesis. In doing so, they provide all of the oxygen that we breathe and produce the sugars that form the basis of the global food chain. My laboratory studies the biology of photosynthesis in plants, answering key questions about how it evolved, how it works, and how it is controlled. We study these questions with an overarching goal to engineer the crop plants of the future, and enable food production to keep pace with global population increase.

Publications

Please see Steve’s Google Scholar page for an up-to-date list of his publications.

Biography

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Teaching

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Praesent ultrices nisi vitae arcu mollis, et condimentum enim efficitur. Phasellus placerat dictum eros eu molestie. Etiam in purus pretium, dignissim ligula nec, facilisis sapien. Morbi id orci vitae mauris pretium ultricies. Pellentesque luctus risus magna, at pharetra lorem venenatis quis. Vivamus rutrum elit vitae justo fermentum bibendum. Pellentesque habitant morbi tristique senectus et netus et malesuada fames ac turpis egestas. Duis sit amet faucibus massa, in imperdiet erat. Ut ultrices libero in ipsum aliquet finibus. Maecenas in urna sed lectus congue vehicula ac ac sem. Integer cursus tincidunt ligula ut tincidunt. Nullam quis dui sollicitudin, pharetra nisi in, tempus felis. Aenean eu felis luctus, tempor tellus volutpat, porta quam. Phasellus nec tristique ipsum. Maecenas accumsan ac nibh a ullamcorper.

Publications

Biography

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Teaching

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Praesent ultrices nisi vitae arcu mollis, et condimentum enim efficitur. Phasellus placerat dictum eros eu molestie. Etiam in purus pretium, dignissim ligula nec, facilisis sapien. Morbi id orci vitae mauris pretium ultricies. Pellentesque luctus risus magna, at pharetra lorem venenatis quis. Vivamus rutrum elit vitae justo fermentum bibendum. Pellentesque habitant morbi tristique senectus et netus et malesuada fames ac turpis egestas. Duis sit amet faucibus massa, in imperdiet erat. Ut ultrices libero in ipsum aliquet finibus. Maecenas in urna sed lectus congue vehicula ac ac sem. Integer cursus tincidunt ligula ut tincidunt. Nullam quis dui sollicitudin, pharetra nisi in, tempus felis. Aenean eu felis luctus, tempor tellus volutpat, porta quam. Phasellus nec tristique ipsum. Maecenas accumsan ac nibh a ullamcorper.

Publications

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