Professor John Bryant

We are pleased to announce that Professor John Bryant of Exeter University has been appointed as our next external examiner. John will replace Dr. Sarah Dunlop who has completed a four-year term.

John Bryant was formerly Professor of Cell and Molecular Biology and Head of Biosciences at Exeter University; he is now Professor Emeritus of Biosciences. He spent much of his research career in plant molecular biology, especially in relation to gene expression in development and to the replication of DNA (with some work on the mechanisms involved in genetic modification of plant cells). He was a Visiting Research Associate at the Brookhaven National Laboratory, USA (1992-1997) and Visiting Professor of Molecular Biology at West Virginia State University, USA (1999-2007). He was also President of the Society for Experimental Biology (2003-2005) and Chair of Christians in Science (2001-2007). In addition to his science, John is very interested in bioethics. He introduced into the Exeter Bioscience curriculum a module on Bioethics and since 2002 has been, together with Dr Chris Willmott (University of Leicester) advisor on Bioethics to the Higher Education Academy. He is a well-known writer and speaker on science, science-ethics and science & religion and has twice been short-listed for a national award in science communication. John is an active member of an Exeter church; he loves the ‘great outdoors’, sport (especially football, cricket and running) and several genres of music.

John’s books include Bioethics for Scientists (co-edited with Linda la Velle and John Searle), Life in Our Hands (co-authored with John Searle), Introduction to Bioethics (co-authored with Linda la Velle and John Searle; 2nd edition is now in press), Functional Biology of Plants (co-authored with Martin Hodson), Plant Nuclear Structure, Genome Architecture and Gene Regulation (co-edited with David Evans and Katja Graumann), Beyond Human?, and Biofuels and Bioenergy (co-edited with John Love).