Professor Alison Smith elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society
John Innes Centre Programme Leader, Professor Alison Smith, has been elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society.
The Fellowship of the Royal Society is made up of the most eminent scientists, engineers and technologists from or living and working in the UK and the Commonwealth. Past Fellows and Foreign Members have included Isaac Newton, Charles Darwin, Albert Einstein and Stephen Hawking.
She becomes the 7th current JIC researcher and the 28th JIC researcher overall to be recognised in this way.
Professor Smith's career has provided important new insights into the way in which plants make starch—the main component of many crops, the major source of calories in our diet, and an important raw material for industry.
Professor Smith said, "This Fellowship is a great honour, and one I never expected to be awarded. I am very grateful to the many colleagues who have supported and encouraged me throughout my career."
JIC Director Professor Dale Sanders FRS said: "Alison has spent almost the whole of her professional career at JIC. During that time she has shown brilliantly how fundamental investigations into biochemistry can be expanded with broad thinking into understanding the biology of plants, and beyond that, the pressing issues of global food security that include quality as well as yield."
Professor Smith's current research focusses on how plants use starch stores for their growth at night, when they are not able to photosynthesise. She and colleagues have shown that plants have sophisticated mechanisms that adjust the rate of consumption of starch to prevent starvation during the night, making use of an internal "clock" that anticipates the time of dawn. She also leads the MET Institute Strategic Programme at the John Innes Centre, which investigates how plants and microbes generate a wide diversity of natural products that we depend on for nutrition, medicines, flavours, fragrances, pesticides and industrial raw materials.
Provided by John Innes Centre
