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Rothamsted Aufsichtsratsmitglieder

Professor Maurice Moloney, Director & Chief Executive

Professor Moloney was Chief Scientific Officer of SemBioSys Genetics Inc, based in Calgary, Canada. He founded the company in 1994 and has maintained this role alongside a successful academic career at the University of Calgary, where he serves as NSERC/Dow AgroSciences Industrial Research Professor of Plant Biotechnology.

Professor Moloney has authored over 80 scientific papers in high profile international journals and holds over 300 patents in plant biotechnology worldwide. He is a leading authority on plant cell biology, especially seed biology and its biotechnological applications in crop improvement and in using plants to produce high value proteins such as therapeutics and novel high-value lipids. Professor Moloney also has significant experience of research policymaking having served on the National Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada 2002-2008 (a Privy Council appointment).

Before moving to Calgary, Professor Moloney led the Cell Biology group at Calgene Inc. in Davis, California, developing the world’s first transgenic oilseeds, which resulted in RoundUp Ready® Canola and other novel crops. He was previously a Royal Society European Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Lausanne, Switzerland.

Originally from Carrickmacross, Co. Monaghan in Ireland. After studying chemistry at Imperial College, London, he was awarded a PhD in Plant Biology at Leicester Polytechnic (now De Montfort University) in 1979. As a postgraduate student, Prof Moloney won a Wain Fellowship from the Agricultural Research Council, a forerunner of BBSRC, which he used to join the laboratory of Professor Robert Cleland at the University of Washington in Seattle, WA, USA. The results of the Wain Fellowship were published in top-tier journals and became a significant foundation for Prof Moloney’s research career.

Professor Chris Rawlings, Head, Biomathematics and Biostatistics

An experienced bioinformatics scientist and manager having extensive experience in the development, deployment and application of in-silico methods for analysis of genetics and genomics data for identification and characterization of genes and proteins relevant to the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries with:

• Knowledge of pharmaceutical (SmithKline Beecham) and biotechnology company (Oxagen Ltd) R&D and business priorities.
• Extensive experience of managing projects and departments that create value through the development and use of bioinformatics and other scientific and general IT tools.
• Wide practical experience and technical knowledge about information technology (hardware and software) and its application in the life sciences.
• A broad background in evaluating and reviewing software products and research proposals through membership of company and UK research council scientific strategy committees.
• An international reputation as a bioinformatics scientist with an extensive and sustained publication record in peer reviewed journals.
• A wide knowledge of the UK and international bioinformatics research and development community with an extensive network of personal contacts.
• A laboratory research background in DNA repair mechanisms and computer science research background in application of artificial intelligence programming languages and knowledge representation systems to biological (bioinformatics) problems.