Mathematical Modelling in Plant Biology

Richard J Morris' research aims to shed light on the physics of information processing in plants. He completed a degree in Mechanical Engineering at the age of 19 before obtaining a BSc in Physics and then an MSc in Theoretical Physics in 1996 from the Erzherzog University of Graz, Austria. He won an EMBL fellowship to carry out his PhD research at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) in the field of computational protein crystallography with Dr Victor Lamzin. After completing his PhD in 2000, Richard joined the group of Dr Gerard Bricogne (MRC-LMB Cambridge & Global Phasing Ltd) to work on Bayesian approaches for protein structure solution. Richard then joined the group of Dame Prof Janet Thornton, FRS, at the European Bioinformatics Institute (EMBL-EBI) in 2002, where he developed novel shape mathematics for protein function prediction. In 2005, Richard was recruited to the bioinformatics group at the John Innes Centre (JIC) as a tenure-track project leader. Richard played a key role in building up computational biology at JIC. He became Head of Department for Computational and Systems Biology in 2010. In 2013 he took on the role of institute strategic programme leader as an associate director. He is active in promoting quantitative, and in particular physical, approaches to plant biology and in training the next generation in mathematical modelling and computational methods.