SEB Marseille 2008
SEB Plenary Lecture - Woolhouse Lecture
09:00 – 10:00 – SEB Plenary Lecture 2 - Woolhouse Lecture
PL.2: Will be given by Professor Stephen P Long (University of Illinois)
Plants and Global Atmospheric Change. Threats, Challenges and Opportunities
Steve Long graduated in Agricultural Botany from Reading in 1972, and then completed a Ph.D. in Environmental Physiology at Leeds in 1975 with Harold Woolhouse. Steve was appointed as the first plant biologist to the then new Biology Department at the University Essex, where he progressed through the ranks to full Professor in 1991 and the department developed to become a UK centre for photosynthesis research. After sabbaticals at the University of Vienna, Smithsonian Institution and Brookhaven National Lab. Steve moved to the Robert Emerson Chair at the University of Illinois in 1999.
Following Harold’s example, Steve’s research approach has been characterized by a continual interplay between hypotheses developed with model systems, both laboratory and mathematical, with tests of these hypotheses in the real-world field situation. Beginning with his undergraduate research, Steve has been curious about the environmental limitations to C4 photosynthesis, this has ranged from biochemistry and the sequencing of C4 photosynthetic genes to analysis of photosynthesis and productivity on the of the UK east coast and on the Amazon floodplains. His work with the C4 perennial Miscanthus has shown its exceptional productivity and adaptation to cool climates, and its promise as a sustainable bioenergy feedstock both in the UK and US. Starting with his Ph.D. work with Harold and Lynton Incoll at Leeds, Steve developed an interest in photosynthetic responses to rising CO2 which has extended from theory, biochemistry and molecular biology to production in natural ecosystems and grain crops. This has included the development of Free Air CO2 and ozone Enrichment (FACE) facilities, which provide the most realistic view of plant performance in the future atmosphere. Recently this research at Illinois and in collaboration with colleagues at ETH Zurich and Tokyo University has shown that the expected benefit of rising CO2 to crop yields may be much smaller than previously expected and cannot offset the negative effects of global change. Together with Chris Somerville at UC Berkeley, Steve directs the Illinois portion of the UCB-LBNL-UIUC Energy Biosciences Institute; which represents the largest single Industry investment in public University research. Steve is listed by ISI as a highly cited author on Plant and Animal Biology, and as one of the 20 most cited authors on Global Change. He is Chief and Founding Editor of the journal Global Change Biology. Last year Steve was invited to the White House to brief the President on strategies to realize sustainable biofuels from plants.
