Karen Halliday
Principal Investigator
T: 0131 6519083
Contact Details
CH Waddington Building
Centre for Systems Biology
Biological Sciences
University of Edinburgh
EH9 3JD
Research Interests
Karen Halliday, is a Reader at Edinburgh University, with expertise in environmental signal integration, molecular genetics and dynamical mathematical modelling in the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana.
Career history
I first became interested in plants after visiting the Amazon rainforest in 1991. I became fascinated with how plants used environmental light cues to signify potential competition from nearby plants and seasonal progression. During my PhD (1992-1996) with Prof. Garry Whitelam at Leicester University I studied the molecular pathways that sense light signals and trigger physiological responses. Subsequently, as a postdoctoral research associate (in Prof. Peter Quail’s lab,USDA, Berkeley, then Prof. Whitelam’s lab) I identified light pathway signalling components and discovered a link between light and temperature signalling. In 2000 I took a Lectureship position at Bristol University where I studied light and hormonal signal integration. Following a move to Edinburgh University as a Senior Lecturer (2004), then a Reader (2011), the scope of my research broadened to include light-temperature interactions and mathematical modelling.
Learn more about light signalling in plants here is a powerpoint presentation on how phytochrome works by Joe Hemsted.
If you are interested in working with us you can view our PhD positionor current vacancies
To view our publications