Alexander Bowles

After completing an my MSc in Ecology, Evolution and Conservation at Imperial College London and the Natural History Museum (London), I began an internship at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew working on the PAFTOL (Plant and Fungal Tree of Life) Project, which aims to produce DNA sequence data for all flowering plant and fungal genera.

In October 2017, I commenced a PhD working with Jordi Paps and Ulrike Bechtold at the University of Essex, where I studied the Major Transitions in the Plant Tree of Life by analysing genes and genomes. Outside of my PhD studies, I was a Plantae Fellow where I regularly summarise the latest research for the plant science community on plantae.org. I was also the city coordinator for Pint of Science Colchester, an outreach festival organised by postgraduate students held in pubs across the world.

In January 2021, I began as a Postdoctoral Research Associate at the University of Bristol working with Tom Williams, Phil Donoghue and Chris Williamson, where I study the origin and evolution of the first land plants.