Thomas ap Rees (19 October 1930 – 3 October 1996) was a

botanist Botany, also called , plant biology or phytology, is the science of plant life and a branch of biology. A botanist, plant scientist or phytologist is a scientist who specialises in this field. The term "botany" comes from the Ancient Greek wo ...

. He was Professor of Botany in the Department of Plant Sciences at the University of Cambridge between 1991 and 1996 when he has killed in a road accident whilst cycling home.

Education and early life

He was born in Frome, Somerset and attended Llandovery College, Dyfed and served two years military service in the

Royal Corps of Signals The Royal Corps of Signals (often simply known as the Royal Signals – abbreviated to R SIGNALS or R SIGS) is one of the combat support arms of the British Army. Signals units are among the first into action, providing the battlefield communi ...

before studying botany at

Lincoln College, Oxford Lincoln College (formally, The College of the Blessed Mary and All Saints, Lincoln) is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford, situated on Turl Street in central Oxford. Lincoln was founded in 1427 by Richard Fleming, the ...

gaining a Doctor of Philosophy degree in 1957 for research supervised by Jack Harley.

Research and career

He lived in

Sydney Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mountain ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

for a number of years as a lecturer in botany at the University of Sydney and in 1961 he was appointed as Senior Research Officer of the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation. He returned to Britain in 1964 on being appointed a

lecturer Lecturer is an List of academic ranks, academic rank within many universities, though the meaning of the term varies somewhat from country to country. It generally denotes an academic expert who is hired to teach on a full- or part-time basis. T ...

at the University of Cambridge. Ap Rees' contribution to plant biochemistry was substantial. He published over 100 research papers and more than 20 reviews during his career. Over 170 scientists attended a meeting held after his death in honour of him and his work. His main area of research was in the regulation and control of plant metabolism. He argued that

sucrose Sucrose, a disaccharide, is a sugar composed of glucose and fructose subunits. It is produced naturally in plants and is the main constituent of white sugar. It has the molecular formula . For human consumption, sucrose is extracted and refined ...

played a central role in plant metabolism. Much of his research was on non- crop species as he believed that there may be metabolic features present in these that could be bred into crop plants. Fellow scientists admired him for his sound approach to research.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rees, Thomas ap English botanists People from Frome 1930 births 1996 deaths Alumni of Lincoln College, Oxford Academic staff of the University of Sydney English biochemists Professors of Botany (Cambridge) 20th-century British botanists Road incident deaths in the United Kingdom Cycling road incident deaths 20th-century British Army personnel Royal Corps of Signals soldiers