Richard A. Dixon is distinguished research professor at the University of North Texas, a faculty fellow of the Hagler Institute of Advanced Study and Timothy C. Hall-Heep distinguished faculty chair at Texas A&M University. One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from the royalsociety.org website where:

Education

Dixon studied Biochemistry at the University of Oxford where he was awarded a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1973 followed by a Doctor of Philosophy degree in 1976 for research on the production of Phytoalexin by plant tissue cultures.

Career and research

After his DPhil, Dixon was a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Cambridge before starting his own research group at

Royal Holloway College Royal Holloway, University of London (RHUL), formally incorporated as Royal Holloway and Bedford New College, is a public research university and a constituent college of the federal University of London. It has six schools, 21 academic departm ...

at the University of London. He served as Director of the Plant Biology Division at the Samuel Roberts Noble Foundation in

Ardmore, Oklahoma Ardmore is the county seat of Carter County, Oklahoma, United States. According to the 2010 census, the city had a population of 24,283, with an estimated population of 24,698 in 2019. The Ardmore micropolitan statistical area had an estimated ...

from 1998 to 2013. For over 30 years he has been a world leader in the field of plant specialized metabolism, using multidisciplinary approaches to decipher the biosynthetic and regulatory pathways leading to

lignin Lignin is a class of complex organic polymers that form key structural materials in the support tissues of most plants. Lignins are particularly important in the formation of cell walls, especially in wood and bark, because they lend rigidity ...

and bioactive

flavonoid Flavonoids (or bioflavonoids; from the Latin word ''flavus'', meaning yellow, their color in nature) are a class of polyphenolic secondary metabolites found in plants, and thus commonly consumed in the diets of humans. Chemically, flavonoids ...

s, and driving the field of

metabolic engineering Metabolic engineering is the practice of optimizing genetic and regulatory processes within cells to increase the cell's production of a certain substance. These processes are chemical networks that use a series of biochemical reactions and enzy ...

for development of more nutritious forages and

bioenergy Biomass is plant-based material used as a fuel for heat or electricity production. It can be in the form of wood, wood residues, energy crops, agricultural residues, and waste from industry, farms, and households. Some people use the terms biom ...

crops with enhanced traits for

biorefining Biorefining is the process of "building" multiple products from biomass as a feedstock or raw material much like a petroleum refinery that is currently in use. A biorefinery is a facility like a petroleum refinery that comprises the various process ...

. His papers have been cited over 66,000 times. From January 1, 2023 he has been Editor-in-Chief of ''

Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B ''Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences'' is a biweekly peer-reviewed scientific journal published by the Royal Society. The editor-in-chief is John Pickett (Cardiff University). Overview Each issue covers a spe ...

'' and he is also a member of the Editorial Board for ''

PNAS ''Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America'' (often abbreviated ''PNAS'' or ''PNAS USA'') is a peer-reviewed multidisciplinary scientific journal. It is the official journal of the National Academy of Scien ...

''.

Awards and honours

Dixon was elected a member of the

National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the Nati ...

(NAS) of the United States. He is also a Fellow of the

American Association for the Advancement of Science The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) is an American international non-profit organization with the stated goals of promoting cooperation among scientists, defending scientific freedom, encouraging scientific respons ...

, the National Academy of Inventors and the American Society of Plant Biologists (ASPB). He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS) in 2018. Dixon has been recognized as a Pioneer Member of the American Society of Plant Biologists.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Dixon, Richard Living people Fellows of the Royal Society Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences Year of birth missing (living people) Alumni of the University of Oxford