Dr. Richard Dixon, Distinguished Research Professor and Co-Director of the Biodiscovery Institute at the University of North Texas, was recently elected into the Royal Society. As a world leader in plant sciences, Dr. Dixon joins the ranks of world-changing scientists and thinkers, including Issac Newton, Charles Darwin, and Stephen Hawking. Acceptance into the Royal Society is based primarily on lifetime achievement and celebrates ongoing research and big ideas that can change the course of history.

The purpose of the Biodiscovery Institute, a research institute of the College of Science at the University of North Texas, is to create innovative, plant-based solutions to the world's problems by studying and processing plant materials. The institute operates through a pipeline linking sustainable plant production platforms, metabolic engineering, and the synthesis of new materials. The multidisciplinary team of BDI researchers, professors and and graduate students alike, are committed to collaborating on large research projects.

The Royal Society is a prestigious self-governing fellowship of scientists and engineers dating back all the way to 1660. Dr. Dixon may now count himself among the approximately 1,600 Fellows and Foriegn Members, which also includes about 80 Nobel Laureates. It is very similar to the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, of which Dr. Dixon is also a member.

From a press release distributed by the UNT system earlier this month: "This is a great honor for Dr. Dixon and UNT," UNT Provost Jennifer Cowley says. "To have a member of both the National Academy and the Royal Society on our faculty shows, once again, that the University of North Texas is one of the top research institutions in the nation. I'm proud of what Dr. Dixon has achieved."