Rate My Professor Wah Soon Chow

Professor Wah Soon Chow, also known as Fred Chow, is an Honorary Group Leader in the Chow Group—Thylakoid structure and function—in the Division of Plant Sciences, Research School of Biology at the Australian National University. He earned a BSc (Hons) from the University of Tasmania in 1972 and a PhD from Flinders University in 1977. Chow's career includes term appointments from 1977 to 1991 at Imperial College London, the Glasshouse Crops Research Institute in the UK, and CSIRO Plant Industry in Canberra. From 1991 to 1996, he held indefinite employment at CSIRO Plant Industry, advancing to Senior Principal Research Scientist. Since 1996, he has held term appointments at the Australian National University.

Chow's research focuses on the physiology, biophysics, and biochemistry of plant photosynthesis, encompassing light-induced electron and proton transport in leaves under environmental stress; thylakoid structure and function, particularly dynamic architecture; and photoprotection and photoinactivation of Photosystem II. He studies the structural organization and function of photosynthetic membranes and their supramolecular components in vitro and in leaves under varied environments. Recognized as an ISI Highly Cited Researcher in Plant and Animal Science in 2005, Chow has served as Editor for Physiologia Plantarum since 1996. His influential publications include Öquist, G., Chow, W.S. and Anderson, J.M. (1992) Photoinhibition of photosynthesis represents a mechanism for the long-term regulation of photosystem II. Planta 186:450-460; Terashima, I. et al. (2009) Green light drives leaf photosynthesis more efficiently than red light in strong white light: revisiting the enigmatic question of why leaves are green. Plant and Cell Physiology 50:684-699; Hendrickson, L., Furbank, R.T. and Chow, W.S. (2004) A simple alternative approach to assessing the fate of absorbed light energy using chlorophyll fluorescence. Photosynthesis Research 82:73-81; Chow, W.S., Melis, A. and Anderson, J.M. (1990) Adjustments of photosystem stoichiometry in chloroplasts improve the quantum efficiency of photosynthesis. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 87:7502-7506; and Anderson, J.M., Chow, W.S. and Park, Y.I. (1995) The grand design of photosynthesis: acclimation of the photosynthetic apparatus to environmental cues. Photosynthesis Research 46:1-11.