Background
Raven, John Albert was born on June 25, 1941.
Raven, John Albert was born on June 25, 1941.
Bachelor, Cambridge University, England, 1963. Master of Arts, Cambridge University, England, 1967. Doctor of Philosophy, Cambridge University, England, 1967.
Doctor of Philosophy (honorary), University Umea, 1995.
His primary research interests lie in the ecophysiology and biochemistry of marine and terrestrial primary producers such as plants and algae. Raven began his studies at the University of Cambridge, receiving a Bachelor in Botany in 1963. He remained at Cambridge to complete a doctorate in Botany (plant biophysics) in 1967, specialising in the membrane transport processes and bioenergetics of giant-celled algae.
After a period as a lecturer at Cambridge, Raven moved to the University of Dundee in 1971, and he remained at Dundee until his formal retirement in 2008.
He was appointed there to a personal chair in 1980, and was the John Boyd Baxter Professor of Biology from 1995 until 2008. Raven has research interests that range from organism-level bioenegetics, biochemistry and ecophysiology, through to wider-scale biogeochemistry, palaeoecology and even astrobiology.
To date, he has published more than 300 refereed research papers, over 50 book chapters, the book Energetics and Transport in Aquatic Plants (1984), and, together with Paul Falkowski, the influential textbook Aquatic Photosynthesis (1997, 2007). In 2005, Raven led a Royal Society review of the state and implications of ongoing ocean acidification.
He became a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 1981, and a Fellow of the Royal Society of London in 1990.
Raven is still active in both research and teaching, despite officially retiring in 2008 when he warned:
Life has survived many rapid and large amplitude environmental changes over billions of years, but we should not be complacent about the biological effects of current anthropogenic influences on the environment. At the most selfish level, we depend on the continued provision of ‘ecosystem services’ for our quality of life.
Fellow: Royal Society Edinburgh, Royal Society London, Institute Biology, Australian Society Plant Physiologists (correspondent).