2023 Adam Kondorosi Award Laudator
Biography
Ray Dixon received his D.Phil at the University of Sussex in 1973 and was a Scientific Officer at the AFRC Unit of Nitrogen Fixation until 1995, when he moved to the John Innes Centre in Norwich. He is a Director of the JIC-CAS Centre of Excellence in Plant and Microbial Science and former Head of the Department of Molecular Microbiology at the John Innes Centre.
Ray has pioneered research on genetic and biochemical analysis of biological nitrogen fixation for more than 40 years. In 1972, he successfully transferred the complete cluster of nitrogen fixation (nif) genes from Klebsiella pneumoniae to Escherichia coli, thus creating the first engineered diazotroph. Dixon’ s group have had a major impact on our understanding of how nitrogen fixation is regulated at the molecular level in response to environmental factors and how multiple signals are communicated to the transcriptional apparatus via signal transduction pathways. Dixon also has extensive knowledge of the biological functions of genes required for the regulation, biosynthesis and activity of nitrogenases and the physiological conditions that favour nitrogen fixation. In collaboration with colleagues in the China and Brazil he is exploiting this knowledge for re-engineering diazotrophic endophytes that efficiently transfer fixed nitrogen to crops and developing strategies for the expression of nitrogen fixation genes in eukaryotes.
Professor Dixon’s contributions to biological nitrogen fixation are recognised by his election to the Royal Society and he has served on Society committees that co-ordinate European interests. He is also an elected member of the European Molecular Biology Organisation and has promoted European excellence in science through his membership of this body.