Beverley Glover


Beverley Jane Glover, is a British biologist specialising in botany. Since July 2013, she has been Professor of Plant Systematics and Evolution in the Department of Plant Sciences at the University of Cambridge and Director of the Cambridge University Botanic Garden.

Early life and education

Glover was born on 7 March 1972 in Ely, Cambridgeshire, England. She is the daughter of Michael Glover and Margaret Glover. She was educated at Perth High School, a comprehensive school in Perth, Scotland. She studied plant and environmental biology at the University of St Andrews, graduating with a Bachelor of Science degree in 1993. During her undergraduate degree, she spent one summer working at the St Andrews Botanic Garden as a gardener. She then began postgraduate research in plant molecular genetics at the John Innes Centre. In 1997, she completed her Doctor of Philosophy degree; it was awarded by the University of East Anglia as the John Innes Centre does not have degree awarding powers. Her doctoral thesis was titled "Cellular differentiation in plants".

Career and research

Glover began her academic career as a junior research fellow at Queens' College, Cambridge between 1996 and 1999. In 1999, she was appointed a lecturer in the Department of Plant Sciences, University of Cambridge. From 2001 to 2007, she was additionally the admissions tutor for science at Queens' College. She was promoted to senior lecturer in 2005 and reader in 2010. In July 2013, she was appointed Director of the Cambridge University Botanic Garden and made Professor of Plant Systematics and Evolution.
Glover holds a number of appointments outside of her university career. She has been a member of the council of the European society for Evolutionary Developmental Biology since 2010, and of the Systematics Association since 2014. On 1 February 2015, she was appointed a member of the Board of Trustees of the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh. The appointment is for four years and will end on 31 January 2019.
She is a member of the Editorial Board for Current Biology.

Personal life

In 2003, Glover married Stuart Bridge. Together they have two children; a daughter and a son.

Honours and awards

In 2010, Glover was awarded the Bicentenary Medal of the Linnean Society. The medal is awarded "in recognition of work done by a biologist under the age of 40 years". In 2010, she was elected a Fellow of the Linnean Society of London. In January 2011, she was jointly awarded the William Bate Hardy Prize for 2010 by the Cambridge Philosophical Society.

Selected publications

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