Plant ecologist elected to prestigious body

Thursday 24 February 2000

A University of St Andrews Plant Ecologist has been elected to a prestigious scientific body aimed at strengthening links between researchers and scholars throughout the world.

Professor R.M.M Crawford, until recently Professor of Plant Ecology and now Professor emeritus of the University of St Andrews, has been elected as a member of the Belgian Royal Academy (L’Académie royale des Sciences, des Lettres et des Beaux-Arts de Belgique).

Belgium’s oldest and most distinguished learned Society, the Academy traces its origins to an original foundation in 1769 by the Empress Marie-Thérèse as a Royal Academy for the promotion of intellectual life in the Imperial Low Countries. A special role of the Academy is to further links between researchers and scholars in Belgium with those from other parts of the world. Non-Belgians and Belgians not resident in Belgium can be elected as associate members and at present there are six from the UK, with Professor Crawford the only Scottish member.

Some 40 years ago, Professor Crawford started his research career in Belgium studying for his doctorate at Liège where his life- long interest in the responses of flowering plants to climate variation was developed. Since then he has pursued this original interest, particularly in relation to the ways in which plants have evolved to overcome environmental stresses such as flooding, cold and other adverse changes in growing conditions.

Professor Crawford is very honoured to have been elected to the Academy and he hopes this renewed association with Belgium will enable him to develop further scientific links with colleagues there.

Issued by Beattie Media on behalf of the University of St Andrews For more information please contact Claire Grainger on 01334 462530, 07887 650072 or email [email protected] Ref: robertcrawford2/standrews/chg/24feb 2000/PR1896

 


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