Richard Dixon (biologist) facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Richard Dixon
|
|
|---|---|
Dixon in 2018
|
|
| Alma mater | University of Oxford |
| Awards | Member of the National Academy of Sciences |
| Scientific career | |
| Institutions | University of North Texas Texas A&M University University of Cambridge Royal Holloway College |
| Thesis | Phytoalexin production by plant tissue cultures (1976) |
Richard A. Dixon is a British scientist who studies plants. He is a top research professor at the University of North Texas and also works at Texas A&M University. He is known for his important work on how plants make special chemicals.
Becoming a Scientist
Richard Dixon studied Biochemistry at the University of Oxford in England. Biochemistry is the study of the chemical processes that happen inside living things. He earned his first degree in 1973.
He then continued his studies and received a special degree called a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) in 1976. For his PhD, he researched how plants create chemicals called Phytoalexins. These chemicals help plants defend themselves from diseases. He studied this using plant tissue cultures, which means growing plant cells in a lab.
What He Does
After finishing his PhD, Dr. Dixon worked as a researcher at the University of Cambridge. Later, he started his own research group at Royal Holloway College in London.
From 1998 to 2013, he led the Plant Biology Division at the Samuel Roberts Noble Foundation. For more than 30 years, he has been a leader in understanding how plants make special chemicals. He uses many different methods to figure out how plants create things like lignin (which makes plants strong) and flavonoids (which are good for health).
Dr. Dixon also works on something called metabolic engineering. This means changing plants to make them better. For example, he tries to make forage plants (like hay for animals) more nutritious. He also works on bioenergy crops, which are plants used to make fuel. His research helps make these crops better for turning into energy. His scientific papers have been used as references by other scientists over 66,000 times!
Since 2023, he has been the main editor for a science journal called Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B. He also helps with another important journal called PNAS.
Awards and Honors
Dr. Dixon has received many important awards for his scientific work:
- He was chosen as a member of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) in the United States. This is a very high honor for scientists.
- He is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
- He is also a Fellow of the National Academy of Inventors.
- He is a Fellow of the American Society of Plant Biologists (ASPB).
- In 2018, he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS), which is one of the oldest and most respected scientific organizations in the world.
He is also recognized as a Pioneer Member of the American Society of Plant Biologists.
