| Citation | Dr G.H. Lorimer is distinguished for his pioneering and unequivocal identification of the oxygenase activity of ribulose-1,5-bisphosphate carboxylase, the pivotal enzyme of carbon autotrophy in photosynthetic metabolism. In the decade between this discovery and his first Annual Review article on the enzyme Lorimer carried out a remarkable range of experiments which established the bicyclical role of the enzyme in photosynthetic and photorespiratory metabolism in-vivo, using 18-O2 as a tracer. He also established the novel kinetic and regulatory properties of the enzyme in-vitro, and has subsequently elucidated the key elements of the reaction mechanism. He has consistently extended techniques of gas chromatography-organic mass spectrometry, stop-flow, fast reaction analysis, chemical quench and other methods to the limits of their resolution in the service of plant biochemistry. Lorimer's outstanding research has provided entirely new perspectives in plant biology which permit functional integration of observations at molecular through to physiological levels of organization. |