Anne Glover (biologist)

Anne Glover
Born Lesley Anne Glover
19 April 1956[1]
Arbroath, Scotland, UK
Fields
Institutions
Alma mater
Thesis The biochemistry and biosynthesis of halobacterial membrane proteins (1982)
Notable awards
Spouse Ian George[1]

Website

Lesley Anne Glover CBE FRSE FASM[4] (born 19 April 1956)[1] is a Scottish biologist and Professor of Molecular biology and Cell biology at the University of Aberdeen.[5][6][7][8][9][10][11] She also served as Chief Scientific Adviser to the President of the European Commission from 2012 to 2014.[3][12][13][14]

Education

Glover was educated at the High School of Dundee and the University of Edinburgh gaining a first class Bachelor of Science honours degree in Biochemistry in 1978.[1] She went on to study at King's College, Cambridge for a Master of Philosophy degree in 1979 and a PhD 1981 on the biosynthesis of halobacterial membrane proteins.[15]

Career

Previously, from August 2006 to December 2011, she was the first ever Chief Scientific Adviser for Scotland, where her role was to further enhance Scotland's reputation as a science nation. She was joint chair of the Scottish Science Advisory Committee and served on the Scottish Council of Economic Advisers until her appointment to the European Commission in 2012.

Glover holds a Personal Chair of Molecular and Cell Biology at the University of Aberdeen, along with honorary positions at the Macaulay and Rowett Institutes, and the University of New South Wales, Sydney.

European Commission

Chief Scientific Adviser to the European Commission, Anne Glover, visits ESO's Paranal Observatory.[16]

Glover's role as Chief Scientific Adviser includes provision of independent expert advice on any aspect of science, technology and innovation as requested by the President of the European Commission. She also acts as an ambassador for European science, both promoting and communicating the benefits and values of science in Europe.[17]

In a series of interviews since being appointed as the European Commission's Chief Scientific Adviser, Glover has emphasised the need for science policy to be firmly based on evidence. She has also spoken of the need to improve science communication to win the confidence of the public and has championed gender equality in European science.

On 13 and 14 November 2014, it was reported by the BBC and The Times that Professor Glover's post was disappearing, apparently following lobbying from green groups concerning her support for genetically modified crops. The Chief Scientific Adviser's role was one of those abolished after the president of the European Commission Jean-Claude Juncker decided to close the Bureau of European Policy Advisers.[18] An article in New Scientist earlier in the year highlighted the controversy concerning the proposals for abolition.[19]

Awards and honours

Glover is an elected Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, the Institute of Biology, the Royal Society of Arts, and the American Society for Microbiology and was a council member of the Natural Environment Research Council from 2001 until 2011. Glover was recognised in 2008 as a Woman of Outstanding Achievement by the UK Resource Centre for Women in Science, Engineering and Technology[20] and was awarded a CBE (Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire) for services to environmental science in the 2009 New Year Honours.[21] In February 2013 she was assessed as the 19th most powerful woman in the United Kingdom by Woman's Hour on BBC Radio 4.[22] She was interviewed by Jim Al-Khalili for The Life Scientific, broadcast in March 2014.[3]

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 "GLOVER, Prof. L(esley) Anne" (Who's Who 2013, A & C Black, an imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing plc, 2013; online edn, Oxford University Press, Dec 2012).(subscription required)
  2. ↑ McLaggan, D.; Amezaga, M. R.; Petra, E.; Frost, A.; Duff, E. I.; Rhind, S. M.; Fowler, P. A.; Glover, L. A.; Lagido, C. (2012). "Impact of Sublethal Levels of Environmental Pollutants Found in Sewage Sludge on a Novel Caenorhabditis elegans Model Biosensor". PLoS ONE 7 (10): e46503. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0046503. PMC 3463613. PMID 23056324.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 Anne Glover interviewed by Jim Al-Khalili on The Life Scientific, BBC Radio 4, 18 March 2014
  4. ↑ "Scottish Science Advisory Committee: SSAC Members". Scottish Government. Retrieved 6 December 2014.
  5. ↑ Girvan, M. S.; Campbell, C. D.; Killham, K.; Prosser, J. I.; Glover, L. A. (2005). "Bacterial diversity promotes community stability and functional resilience after perturbation". Environmental Microbiology 7 (3): 301–13. doi:10.1111/j.1462-2920.2005.00695.x. PMID 15683391.
  6. ↑ Batchelor, S. E.; Cooper, M; Chhabra, S. R.; Glover, L. A.; Stewart, G. S.; Williams, P; Prosser, J. I. (1997). "Cell density-regulated recovery of starved biofilm populations of ammonia-oxidizing bacteria". Applied and environmental microbiology 63 (6): 2281–6. PMC 168521. PMID 9172348.
  7. ↑ McCaig, A. E.; Glover, L. A.; Prosser, J. I. (2001). "Numerical analysis of grassland bacterial community structure under different land management regimens by using 16S ribosomal DNA sequence data and denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis banding patterns". Applied and environmental microbiology 67 (10): 4554–4559. doi:10.1128/AEM.67.10.4554-4559.2001. PMC 93202. PMID 11571155.
  8. ↑ Mercer, D. K.; Scott, K. P.; Bruce-Johnson, W. A.; Glover, L. A.; Flint, H. J. (1999). "Fate of free DNA and transformation of the oral bacterium Streptococcus gordonii DL1 by plasmid DNA in human saliva". Applied and environmental microbiology 65 (1): 6–10. PMC 90975. PMID 9872752.
  9. ↑ McCaig, A. E.; Glover, L. A.; Prosser, J. I. (1999). "Molecular analysis of bacterial community structure and diversity in unimproved and improved upland grass pastures". Applied and environmental microbiology 65 (4): 1721–1730. PMC 91243. PMID 10103273.
  10. ↑ Anne Glover's publications indexed by the Scopus bibliographic database, a service provided by Elsevier.
  11. ↑ Rattray, E. A.; Prosser, J. I.; Killham, K; Glover, L. A. (1990). "Luminescence-based nonextractive technique for in situ detection of Escherichia coli in soil". Applied and environmental microbiology 56 (11): 3368–74. PMC 184955. PMID 2268151.
  12. ↑ Carroll, Dean (17 February 2012). "The new EU chief scientist – in her first major interview". PublicServiceEurope.com. Archived from the original on 1 June 2013.
  13. ↑ Kupferschmidt, K (2013). "Profile: Anne Glover. Europe's science superwoman struggles to get off the ground". Science 339 (6124): 1144–5, 1147. doi:10.1126/science.339.6124.1144. PMID 23471384.
  14. ↑ Peplow, M. (2014). "EU science chief wants greater voice for experts". Nature. doi:10.1038/nature.2014.15445.
  15. ↑ Glover, Lesley Anne (1982). The biochemistry and biosynthesis of halobacterial membrane proteins (PhD thesis). University of Cambridge.
  16. ↑ "Chief Scientific Adviser to the European Commission visits ESO's Paranal Observatory". ESO Announcement. Retrieved 25 March 2013.
  17. ↑ "Appointment of Chief Scientific Adviser", Europa, Brussels, 5 December 2011. Retrieved on 29 February 2012.
  18. ↑ McGrath, Matt (13 November 2014). "Researchers 'appalled' as EU chief scientist role is axed". BBC News. Retrieved 16 November 2014.
  19. ↑ http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn25957-dont-scrap-europes-chief-scientific-adviser.html
  20. ↑ "Women of Outstanding Achievement in SET Achievement in SET Photographic Exhibition Photographic Exhibition. 2008". UK Resource Centre for Women in Science Engineering and Technology. 2008. Retrieved 3 April 2015.
  21. ↑ The London Gazette: (Supplement) no. 58929. p. 7. 31 December 2008.
  22. ↑ BBC Radio 4, Woman's Hour Power list

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