Profile
Ross Alexander
Looking forward to another day of live chats
My CV
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Education:
I went to Thurso high school in the far north of Scotland. When I was seventeen I went to Heriot Watt University in Edinburgh to study biological sciences. I managed to get a first class honours degree and secured myself a PhD (also at Heriot Watt) in plant molecular biology.
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Work History:
After my PhD working with plants I then got a job at another lab in Edinburgh working on a completely different organism, yeast. I spent 7 great years there studying very very complicated processes such as splicing and transcription (ask your teacher). But I then decided that I really liked plants and wanted to work with them again.
I was lucky enough to go and work in the Netherlands for 2 years before making my way back to Edinburgh and my first job as a lecturer at an agricultural college. 4 years ago I started my current job as a lecturer back at Heriot Watt University, -
Current Job:
Lecturer (assistant professor) in Biology at the Institute of Earth and Life Sciences (ILES) at Heriot Watt University.
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About Me:
I like to think I am a fairly chilled-out kind of person. I take great delight in finding solutions to scientific problems, and tend to do so with a smile on my face (well, most of the time).
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I currently live in Edinburgh with my wife Angela, and work at Heriot Watt University, which is on the outskirts of the city. I come from a small town called Thurso, in the far north of Scotland, but I moved away for university when I was 17 – I love being in Edinburgh.
When I am not working you are likely to find me in one of two places: either in the garage where I will be brewing lots of my own beer (for all of my friends, honest), or on the touch rugby field. I have played touch for almost 20 years now and have been lucky enough to play for Scotland well over 50 times. But I am getting old now, so over the past few years have moved into coaching. I am currently coaching a women’s team for the European championship being held in August. I have also coached at junior level, bringing home a few medals in the process.
Whilst I do not play touch as much anymore, I still like to keep fit and love to be outdoors. This can be on one of my (many) bikes or just running up and down the hills of Edinburgh. I have rather stupidly set myself the goal of running a 10k race in less than 40 minutes before I turn 40 this December. I also love the sea and can be found (mostly in the summer) out on my Stand Up Paddle board, struggling to catch a wave.
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I am a scientist who looks at what happens when plants get stressed. In particular, what happens when they do not get enough water?
The plants that I work with are barley (which is used to make beer and whisky) and a small model plant species called Arabidopsis thaliana. Arabidopsis is great to work with because it is small, grows fast, and we know so much about its DNA and how it behaves.
At the moment I am stressing out my plants by not watering them or by adding lots of salt to their soil. This freaks them out big time (some more than others). I then look to see why this is happening. I have lots of different ways I can check to see if they are sick, but the thing that is most interesting to me is how they respond at the DNA level. I can measure the level of different genes (these are pieces of DNA that make proteins) and see if any of these genes can help stop the plants from getting stressed.
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My Typical Day:
I am NOT a morning person. But when I do make it into work, what I do each day can be very very different. Some days are spent teaching university students and some are spent in the lab working on my plants. And then there are the really busy days which are a mixture of both teaching and lab-work.
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I am NOT a morning person. I need a huge hit of coffee before I can function. When I do make it into work , what I do each day can be very very different.
Some days are spent teaching university students. This can take the form of large lectures with over 150 students, smaller classes with 40 students, or hands-on Lab classes.
I am very lucky that twice a year I get to go and teach in China for 5 weeks. This is super intense, both for me and my students, as we have to cover lots of material in a short period of time. I do get to stay in a nice hotel though, and the food at the university campus is amazing.
When I am not teaching, I am trying to get work done in the lab. I like to be hands-on and assist my students with their work too. Pottering about in the lab is the best part of my job and can be very rewarding, especially when your experiments work (more often than not they don’t though, because something fails – it’s a very tricky process).
When i have enough results my time is then spent writing up all of the work in the hope that it will get published for the world to read.
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What I'd do with the prize money:
I would like to develop an activity around food security that I can take to different schools all over Scotland, particularly the far north where I am from.
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My Interview
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How would you describe yourself in 3 words?
Chilled, passionate and inquisitive.
What did you want to be after you left school?
I think I had a vague idea of becoming a professional rugby player.
Were you ever in trouble at school?
Yes, but funnily enough only during science classes.
Who is your favourite singer or band?
Take That
What's your favourite food?
Something Chinese... maybe Sichuan-style pork & green beans, as that dish is amazing
If you had 3 wishes for yourself what would they be? - be honest!
1. To run a sub-40 minute 10km at age 40. 2. To sell my beer commercially. 3. To have a long healthy life.
Tell us a joke.
I'm not that funny, but try this one: Q. What do vegan zombies eat? A. Graaaaaaaaaaaaains!
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