Interview with Dr John Love

Name: Dr John Love
Age: 42
Job: Senior Lecturer in Plant Molecular Biology
Based in: School of Biosciences
Education: BSc First Class Honours in Bioscience from the University of St Andrews; PhD from the University of Edinburgh on cell signalling in early development of brown seaweed embryos.

What has been the most rewarding moment of your career so far?

Obtaining my first research grant. It is something that young scientists submit on their own and obtaining the award is a mark of trust and encouragement from the scientific community. The grant from the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council was to ivestigate the role of calcium signalling in day-length perception of plants. Plants, like animals, use changes in day length to monitor the seasons and adjust their development accordingly. We have developed new ways to image calcium signals in living plant leaves, which is helping us understand the role of this simple element in plants’ seasonal rhythms.

What has been your major academic achievement?

Building and supporting my research team which is comprised of researchers, technicians, undergraduate and postgraduate students. Our lab was established in 2003 and uses state of the art molecular and cell biology to investigate cell signalling in plants during the vegetative-floral transition. I have the opportunity to work with some of the brightest and most imaginative people in the world and I can honestly say that I have never been bored at work.

What do you hope to achieve at Exeter?

I want us to be an ideas factory for the future based on the highest quality science.

If you had not been an academic, what would you have been?

Ever since I was little I've wanted to be a biologist, and I'm very lucky to have achieved that. More and more, though, I realise that being a scientist is a state of mind, rather than a series of activities.