George Littlejohn is Associate Professor of Plant and Fungal Biology and Associate Head of the School of Biological and Marine Sciences at the University of Plymouth, United Kingdom. He completed his PhD at the University of Glasgow in 2006, and spent nine years as a research fellow at the University of Exeter before moving to Plymouth in 2016.
His group works on plant–pathogen interactions and on minimally invasive imaging in plant stress biology. A central focus is the cellular and molecular basis of rice blast, caused by Magnaporthe oryzae, including the roles of the plant and fungal circadian clocks and of the chloroplast in determining disease outcome. A parallel strand develops chlorophyll fluorescence imaging for pre-symptomatic diagnosis of plant disease.
George is Chair of the Plant Section of the Society for Experimental Biology, and sits on the SEB Council as a trustee. He chaired the SEB+ Section from 2015 to 2018 and received the Society’s President’s Medal for Education and Public Affairs in 2014. He represents the SEB on the GPC board.