Gideon Davies


Gideon John Davies FRS FRSC FMedSci in the York Structural Biology Laboratory at the University of York, UK.. Davies is best known for his ground-breaking studies into carbohydrate-active enzymes, notably analysing the conformational and mechanistic basis for catalysis and applying this for societal benefit. In 2016 Davies was made the .

Education and career

Davies was educated at the University of Bristol where he was awarded a Bachelor of Science degree in Biochemistry and a PhD in 1990 for research on the enzyme phosphoglycerate kinase isolated from the bacterium Bacillus stearothermophilus, and supervised by Herman Watson and Len Hall. He was awarded a Doctor of Science degree from the University of Bristol in 2007.
Following his PhD, Davies did postdoctoral research at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory outstation in Hamburg working with Keith S. Wilson on the use of synchrotron radiation in protein crystallography and also at the Centre national de la recherche scientifique in Grenoble. in 1990, Davies moved to York to work with Dale Wigley and Guy Dodson on DNA gyrase, starting his own group within YSBL in 1996 upon receiving a Royal Society University Research Fellowship. He was appointed Professor at the University of York in 2001 and awarded a Royal Society Ken Murray Research Professorship in 2016. He has collaborated with Alywn Jones, Bernard Henrissat, Steve Withers and David Vocadlo.

Research

Davies research investigates the biological chemistry of carbohydrates, from their structure to their roles in enzymology, glycobiology, use as biofuels and implications for gut microbiota. His research has been funded by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council, European Research Council and Alzheimer's Research UK.

Awards and honours

Davies has won a number of awards for his work. These include The Davy Medal and Gabor Medal of the Royal Society, the John and Rita Cornforth Award, the Haworth Memorial, Khorana, Peptide and Protein, Corday-Morgan and Carbohydrate Chemistry medals of the Royal Society of Chemistry, the iChemE Global Energy Award of the Institution of Chemical Engineers, The Whistler Prize of the , and the of the Biochemical Society. In 2019 he was one of the members of the York Structural Biology Laboratory at the University of York that received the Queen's Anniversary Prize.
Davies was elected a member of the European Molecular Biology Organization in 2010, is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry
In 2010, Davies was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society. His nomination reads:
Davies was elected a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences in 2014, his nomination reads

Published Works

Davies has over 340 publications on .

Personal life

Davies married Valérie Marie-Andrée Ducros in 1999 and has two daughters.