Liam Dolan facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Liam Dolan
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Liam Dolan at the Royal Society admissions day in London, 2014
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| Alma mater |
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| Awards | EMBO Member (2009) |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Plant development Plant evolution |
| Institutions |
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| Thesis | A genetic analysis of leaf development in cotton (Gossypium barbadense L.) (1991) |
| Doctoral advisor | R. Scott Poethig |
Liam Dolan is a leading scientist who studies how plants grow and change over time. He is currently a senior group leader at the Gregor Mendel Institute in Austria. Before this, he was a professor at the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom from 2009 to 2021.
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Education and Early Career
Liam Dolan studied at University College Dublin and the University of Pennsylvania. In 1991, he earned his PhD. His research focused on how cotton plant leaves develop, using a method called genetic analysis. This means he looked at the genes that control leaf growth.
After getting his PhD, Dolan worked as a researcher at the John Innes Centre in Norwich, UK, for three years. He then became an independent project leader there for 13 years. In 2009, he moved to Oxford to become a professor.
Plant Development and Evolution Research
Liam Dolan's research explores the amazing ways plants develop. He wants to understand the genetic rules that guide plant growth. He also studies how these rules have changed over millions of years. This includes how plants first started to grow on land about 500 million years ago.
Understanding Plant Roots
Dolan has made very important discoveries about how plant roots grow and have changed over time. He was the first to map out the exact cell structure of the Arabidopsis plant root. He also found the specific genetic process that controls how root hair cells form. Root hairs are tiny parts of roots that help plants absorb water and nutrients.
His work showed that this root development process is very old. He discovered how the earliest land plants developed their rooting systems. These ancient roots actually caused big changes to Earth's climate over 400 million years ago. Dolan's discoveries help us see how plant growth, their evolution, and the Earth's systems are all connected.
He also helped write a textbook called Plant Biology.
Awards and Honours
Liam Dolan has received several important awards for his scientific work.
- In 2001, he was given the President's Medal by the Society for Experimental Biology.
- In 2009, he became a member of the European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO).
- In 2014, he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS). This is a very high honour for scientists in the UK.
- In 2024, he was elected a member of the Austrian Academy of Sciences.
