Draft:Gail Taylor

Gail Taylor, born in the UK in July of 1962, is a scientist working in the field of Plant Sciences. She currently works as the Department Chair of the Plant Sciences Department, with an endowed professorship, at University of California, Davis (U.C. Davis). Taylor is leaving her position at U.C. Davis to become Dean of Life Sciences at University College London in the fall. Taylor was first inspired by plants in her grandmother's garden when she was a child. Her grandmother taught her the food storage methods of pickling, preserving, and using a cellar. Her two favorite plants are lettuce and watercress.

Education
Taylor went to Lancaster University and received both a B.Sc. in Biological Sciences, Specializing in Plant Science, Genetics, and Ecology in 1983 and a Ph.D. in Plant Biology in 1986.

Career
After receiving her Ph.D. in 1986, Taylor became a post-doctoral research fellow at the Forestry Commission of the UK until 1990. She then worked as a Plant Biology lecturer at the University of Sussex, becoming a senior lecturer in 1997, and left to work as a senior lecturer of Biodiversity and Ecology at the University of Southampton in 1999. In 2004, Taylor became a professor of Plant Sciences at the University of Southampton and eventually became a director of research for Biological Sciences. In 2015, while at the University of Southampton, she became one of ten trustees of the Annals of Botany Company, which is the world's oldest plant science journal and is a global leader of plant biology research. In 2017, Taylor moved to the U.S. to be the department chair and a professor of Plant Sciences at University of California, Davis. Since accepting this position, she has expanded, reorganized, and increased income for the department, kept U.C. Davis at number one in the world for Plant Sciences, helped to lead the new Agricultural Innovation Center, and set up the Plant Science department to be on the same world class track for a long time. She was also awarded the John B. Orr Endowed Professorship in Environmental Plant Sciences in 2020 for her research on adapting plants to be more nutritious, strengthening plant cultivation through environmental agriculture, and developing poplar trees into biofuel. This award made her one of five women in the Plant Science Department to hold endowed chair positions as of 2024, which the department called a "historic achievement." Taylor is leaving her position at U.C. Davis to become the Dean of Life Sciences at the University College of London, starting in the fall of 2024. In her career, Taylor has published about 330 papers and been cited over 16,000 times; she has also already published 4 papers this year. She has contributed a large volume of work to the plant sciences industry and helped build departments and research centers along the way.

Research
Taylor's research has focused on leafy greens and bioenergy. She has researched molecular breeding for lettuce and watercress, improving shelf life of lettuce with physiology and genetics, the genetics of the leafy green and microbe relationship, and produced the first genomic information on watercress. She has also researched the development and delivery of trees to be used for biofuel, and the molecular adaptations plants have made to the increasing CO2 in the atmosphere.

Achievements
Taylor received a B.Sc. in Biological Sciences, Specializing in Plant Science, Genetics, and Ecology in 1983 from Lancaster University in the UK.

She was the runner-up for the Anne Keymer Prize for best Ph.D. talk at the British Ecological Society meeting in 1985.

She received a Ph.D. in Plant Biology in 1986 from Lancaster University in the UK.

She was a director of research for Biological Sciences at University of Southampton in the UK from 2012 to 2015.

She became the director and a trustee of the Vitacress Conservation Trust in 2007.

She became a Fellow of the Royal Society of Biology in 2014.

She became one of ten trustees for the Annals of Botany Company in 2015.

She became the department chair of the Plant Sciences Department of U.C. Davis in 2017.

She was named the John B. Orr Endowed Professor in Environmental Plant Sciences in 2020.

She accepted a position as Dean of Life Sciences at University College London in 2024.

Her work has been cited over 16,000 times.

Personal life
Taylor is a mother to two children.