Following his PhD, Trewavas did his postdoctoral research at the newly constituted University of East Anglia. He moved to the University of Edinburgh in 1970 and was Professor of Plant Biochemistry 1990–2004. In 1972 he was invited to be first visiting professor at the prestigious Plant Research laboratory in Michigan State University. At the time this laboratory was regarded as the foremost laboratory dealing with plant research. He also, after invitation, spent periods of time as visiting professor at other universities in the Americas and Europe usually providing up to 20 lectures. He is the author of some 250 [8] scientific papers and three books both as editor and author. He was made Professor Emeritus in the University of Edinburgh in 2004.
Research
Plant behaviour is simply the response of plants to environmental problems or change. His main research contribution as the leader of the Edinburgh Molecular Signalling Group, has been in the role of calcium in signal transduction during plant development.[9]
Although Trewavas has done significant research of plant molecular mechanisms and signaling, his true fascination was with whole plant behaviour. In 1972 he picked up a book titled General Systems Theory by Ludwig von Bertalanffy about systems theory, which would have a profound influence on this view of biology.[10] It dictated that biology was constructed from systems or network which were all interconnected and these connections gave rise to novel properties of organisms and populations. At a time when most scientists, including himself, were reductionists, this approach was very controversial. Trewavas's articles with his new perspective were ridiculed, and even led to his promotion being temporarily blocked. His inspiration to pursue plant intelligence came from Barbara McClintock, who he mentions in his 2014 book Plant Behaviour and Intelligence.[11][12] In the book Trewavas defined intelligence as "quite simply the capacity for problem solving" and using this definition he argued that all organisms including plants act intelligently within their environment.[13]
Knight, M. R.; Campbell, A. K.; Smith, S. M.; Trewavas, A. J. (1991). "Transgenic plant aequorin reports the effects of touch and cold-shock and elicitors on cytoplasmic calcium". Nature. 352 (6335): 524–526. Bibcode:1991Natur.352..524K. doi:10.1038/352524a0. PMID1865907. S2CID4239898.
^"Trewavas, Prof. Anthony James, (born 17 June 1939), Professor of Plant Biochemistry, Edinburgh University, 1990–2004, now Emeritus". Prof. Anthony Trewavas. 2007. doi:10.1093/ww/9780199540884.013.U38037.
