Professor John Raven

John Raven, Emeritus Professor, was Boyd Baxter Professor of Biology at the University of Dundee from 1995 until his official retirement in 2008. He was born in 1941, and obtained a BA in Botany in 1963 and a PhD in Botany (Plant Biophysics) in 1967 from the University of Cambridge (UK). John moved to the University of Dundee in 1971 as a lecturer in the Department of Biological Sciences, where he became a full Professor in 1980. His primary research interests are in the energetics, ecophysiology and biogeochemistry of aquatic and terrestrial primary producers, with related studies on palaeoecology and some recent forays into astrobiology. A continuing interest is the evolution of bioenergetics and resource use and acquisition in relation to environmental changes. He has published two monographs (one co-authored with Paul Falkowski) on photosynthesis and other aspects of bioenergetics, over 340 peer-reviewed publications as well as numerous book chapters, and is an associate editor for six journals. He chaired the panel which produced the 2005 Royal Society of London report on Ocean Acidification. His Hirsch index is 64. John was elected Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 1981 and Fellow of the Royal Society of London in 1990.