Jim Beynon set out to be a plant breeder by studying Agricultural Botany at Aberystwyth before chance events allowed him to do a PhD in Rhizobium Genetics at the John Innes Institute. He then moved to the Unit of Nitrogen Fixation at Sussex University where he worked on the regulation of expression of nitrogen fixation genes in Klebsiella pneumoniae and the transition to molecular biologist was completed! Jim then spent seven years working for BioTechnica International in the USA on improving the efficiency of nitrogen fixation in the symbiotic microbe Rhizobium meliloti. In 1990 a return to the UK, as a Lecturer at Wye College, initiated his switch to plant pathologist. In collaboration with Ian Crute and Eric Holub, from HRI East Malling, he began working on the interaction of Arabidopsis with Hyaloperonospora parasitica. This lead to the cloning of several plant resistance genes over the following years. A final move to WarwickHRI in 1997 saw the development of this research and the beginning of the molecular analysis of the pathogen, culminating in the sequencing of the genome and the cloning of the first avirulence genes from H. parasitica. Jim has recently become Chair of Plant Systems Biology and has a joint appointment in Warwick Systems Biology. This is allowing him to explore new approaches to model the gene transcription networks that underpin the sophisticated interaction between host and pathogen.

Jim is currently Chair of the Arabidopsis research network GARNET and a member of the BBSRC Plant and Microbial Sciences Committee.

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