| Authorised form of name | Ellis; Reginald John (1935-2025); biochemist |
| Dates | 1935-2025 |
| Nationality | British |
| Place of birth | Newcastle-under-Lyme, Staffordshire, England, United Kingdom |
| Date of birth | 12 February 1935 |
| Place of death | England, United Kingdom |
| Date of death | 19 November 2025 |
| Occupation | Biochemist and university professor |
| Research field | Molecular Biology |
| Biochemistry |
| Activity | Education:
Highbury Grammar School, London; King'sCollege London BSc (1956), PhD (1960)
Career:
Scientific officer in the Agriculture Research Council (ARC) Unit of Plant Physiology, Imperial College, University of London (1959–61); ARC Research Fellow at the Department of Biochemistry, University of Oxford (1961–64); lecturer in the Department of Botany, University of Aberdeen (1964); moved to the Department of Biochemistry, University of Aberdeen (1968); Senior Lecturer and Head of the Chloroplast Research Group, Department of Biological Sciences, University of Warwick (1970); remained at Warwick University as reader (1973); holder of a personal chair (1976); and Emeritus Professor of Biological Sciences (1996); visiting professor at the Department of Chemistry, University of Oxford (1996-2000); died following a short illness.
Awards/Medals:
Tate & Lyle Award for contributions to plant biochemistry 1980
Elected Member of EMBO, the European Molecular Biology Organisation 1986
Senior Research Fellowship at St John's College, University of Oxford 1992
Gairdner Foundation International Award for "fundamental discoveries in chaperone-assisted protein folding in the cell and its relevance to neurodegeneration" 2004
Cell Stress Society International Medal for "pioneering research on the chaperonins" 2007
Croonian Prize Lecture of the Royal Society for "pioneering contributions to biochemistry, molecular biology, and also plant sciences" 2011
The 2019 Centenary Award of the Biochemical Society 2018 |
| Membership category | Fellow |
| Date of election | 17/03/1983 |
| Age at election | 48 |
| RSActivity | Lectures:
Croonian Lecture 2011 for pioneering contributions to biochemistry, molecular cell biology and plant sciences; Bakerian Lecture 2015 |
| Relationships | Spouse: Diana Ellis (m. 1963)
Children: Juliet Ellis |
| PublishedWorks | RCN 38150
RCN 38150
RCN R74974
RCN 38154
RCN 38152
RCN 38151
RCN R82781
RCN R70957
RCN 57545
RCN 38155 |
| OtherInfo | His early work concerned sulfur metabolism in bacteria and plants where he established the control of sulphate reduction by feedback inhibition. From 1970, he contributed to our understanding of the interaction of nuclear and chloroplast genomes to produce the chloroplast enzyme ribulose bisphosphate carboxylase/oxygenase (RuBisCO), a key enzyme of photosynthesis and probably the most abundant protein in the world. The enzyme consists of large subunits encoded and synthesised within the chloroplast, and small subunits encoded in the nucleus and synthesised by cytosolic ribosomes.
He originated using light as an energy source for intact isolated chloroplasts as a means of identifying the function of chloroplast ribosomes and of chloroplast DNA.
John's work led to a great increase in research by other laboratories using in vitro methods to investigate the chloroplast genetic system. |
| Source | The Royal Society Fellows Directory, Professor R. John Ellis FRS, [URL: https://royalsociety.org/people/john-ellis-11394/; last accessed: 17/12/2025]
The Air Ambulance Service, In Memory of Reginald John Ellis, [URL: https://theairambulanceservice.org.uk/ways-to-give/give-in-memory/tribute/reginald-john-ellis/; last accessed: 17/12/2025]
R. John Ellis, Wikipedia, [URL: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R._John_Ellis; last accessed: 17/12/2025] |
| Code | NA4441 |
Archives associated with this Fellow
| RefNo | Title | Date |
| IM/001294 | Ellis, Reginald John | December 2001 |
| EC/1983/07 | Ellis, Reginald John: certificate of election to the Royal Society | 1981 |