[2] Grierson graduated from the University of East Anglia with a degree in Biological Sciences in 1967,[3] after working for a short time in an industrial research lab, he obtained his PhD in Plant Science from the University of Edinburgh in 1972 for research on ribosomal ribonucleic acid in developing primary leaves of the mung bean Phaseolus aureus supervised by Ulrich Loening.
[1] Grierson was a member of academic staff at University of Nottingham for over 40 years[4] where he was awarded a Doctor of Science (DSc) degree in 1999.
He also was the first to identify and characterise genes for ACC oxidase (ACO) and demonstrated its role in the synthesis of the hormone ethylene.
In 2000 he appointed Order of the British Empire (OBE) for "services to plant gene regulation".
[10] In 2001 he received the Bertebos Prize, from the Royal Swedish Academy for Agriculture & Forestry for "pioneering research in modern plant biotechnology".