Ian Sussex: simple tools, clever experiments and new insights into plant development

Abstract

Ian Sussex, who began his career at a time when the most powerful tool available to plant developmental biologists was a scalpel, helped transform the discipline of plant developmental biology into the dynamic, sophisticated field that it is today. He did this through his own research, through an influential book that he wrote with his friend and colleague Taylor Steeves, and through his many students and post-doctoral fellows, to whom he gave the greatest gift a scientist can receive – the freedom to do whatever they wanted.