20 Facts About Anthony Cashmore

Anthony Cashmore was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 2003.

Anthony Cashmore enrolled at the University of Auckland, majoring in chemistry and completing a Bachelor of Science degree in 1962, Master of Science degree in 1963, and Ph.

In 1968 Anthony Cashmore moved to Cambridge to pursue postdoctoral studies at the University of Cambridge Department of Chemistry, and later at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology.

In 1971 Anthony Cashmore moved to the United States, where he worked as a Research Associate in the laboratory of Michael Chamberlin at the University of California, Berkeley before returning to New Zealand.

In 1979, Anthony Cashmore took a position at the Rockefeller University, first as a visiting scientist in the laboratory of Nam-Hai Chua, and then as an assistant professor, then Associate Professor.

In 1986, Anthony Cashmore was appointed the Director of the Plant Science Institute at the University of Pennsylvania.

Anthony Cashmore retired in 2011 and is currently an Emeritus Professor of Biology at the University of Pennsylvania.

Anthony Cashmore's studies showed that prostratin was strikingly similar to the co-carcinogenic phorbol esters of croton oil, a relationship that was confirmed using chemical synthesis and x-ray crystallography approaches.

Later, Anthony Cashmore used the RNA sequencing procedure that had recently been developed by Fred Sanger to identify the reactive cytosine residues in a tyrosine suppressor tRNA of Escherichia coli.

At New Zealand's DSIR Palmerston North, Anthony Cashmore studied the biosynthesis of RuBisCO, a multi-subunit protein located in plant chloroplasts.

At Rockefeller University, Anthony Cashmore studied DNA sequences associated with light regulated expression of a pea nuclear RuBisCO small subunit gene.

Interested in adopting the "power of Arabidopsis genetics" for the study of light regulation, in 1980 Anthony Cashmore, working with post-doctoral student Margaret Ahmad, identified Arabidopsis mutants that showed reduced sensitivity to blue light.

Ahmad and Anthony Cashmore called this blue light photoreceptor "cryptochrome", and it is referred to as CRY1.

In recent years, Anthony Cashmore turned his attention to the topic of human behavior, studying the concepts of free will and consciousness.

Anthony Cashmore further suggested that the concept of free will "is an illusion, akin to religious beliefs or the outdated belief in vitalism", equivalent to the continuing belief in Cartesian duality, and therefore contradictory to society's interpretation of accountability in the criminal justice system.

Anthony Cashmore was a Professor of Biology at the University of Pennsylvania and Director of the Plant Science Institute there until his retirement in 2011.

Anthony Cashmore has authored more than 100 refereed research papers and has served on the editorial boards of the publications Plant Molecular Biology, The Plant Journal, and the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.

Anthony Cashmore was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 2003.

Anthony Cashmore was born in Auckland, to parents Nancy and Norman Anthony Cashmore.

Anthony Cashmore is married to American Neuroscientist and Geneticist Nancy Bonini.