Professor Peter Hedden graduated with BSc (1969) and PhD (1973) degrees in chemistry from the University of Bristol. After post-doctoral positions at the University of Göttingen, Germany, with Jan Graebe and at UCLA, USA, with Bernard Phinney, he joined East Malling Research Station, in Kent, United Kingdom in 1981. He moved to Long Ashton Research Station (LARS), Bristol, UK, in 1984 and then to Rothamsted Research after the closure of LARS in 2003. His main research interest throughout his career has been the biosynthesis of the gibberellin plant hormones, working initially on delineating the biosynthetic pathways, then on the isolation and characterization of the biosynthetic enzymes and latterly on their regulation by developmental and environmental factors. Current research includes exploiting the gibberellin biosynthesis and signal transduction pathways for the introduction of desirable traits into crop species.

Dr Steve Thomas graduated BSc from the University of Southampton in 1991. He gained a PhD in biochemistry at Bristol University in 1996. In the same year he started postdoctoral work at Long Ashton Research Station where he spent four years investigating the regulation of gibberellin biosynthesis and inactivation in sugar beet and Arabidopsis. He then spent three and a half years in Tai-ping Sun’s Laboratory at Duke University dissecting the signalling pathways controlling gibberellin-mediated degradation of DELLA proteins in Arabidopsis. In 2004, he returned to the UK to work with Dr Andy Phillips and Prof. Peter Hedden in the Hormone Signalling Group at Rothamsted Research as a Senior Scientist. He is currently a member of the 20:20 Wheat® Institute Strategic Programme at Rothamsted Research, with his research  focused on improving grain yields in wheat by manipulating plant hormone signalling.