The main thrust of his research has been on understanding the molecular basis of quality and developmental traits in potato tubers. I received a thorough grounding in chemistry and biochemistry with a particular focus on protein and nucleic acid chemistry. This provided a solid foundation for my subsequent research career, with its focus on plant molecular physiology. My PhD studies were on energetics in photosynthetic prokaryotes and had a strong biotechnological slant (Professor J.B. Jackson, supervisor). The microbiology skills developed have also been particularly useful in subsequent molecular biology studies. My interests in the molecular architecture of electron transport complexes expanded in a two-year post-doctoral fellowship at Royal Holloway, University of London (Professor J.R. Bowyer, supervisor). Through collaborations with Imperial College (Professor Jim Barber’s group), significant progress was made in understanding the water splitting complex of photosystem II, the enzyme responsible for oxygen evolution.