[5] Raven was born on 25 June 1941,[6] and brought up on a farm in northwest Essex and educated at the Friends' School, Saffron Walden[7][6] and St John's College, Cambridge, receiving a Bachelor of Arts degree in Botany in 1963.
[8] He remained at Cambridge to complete a PhD in Botany (plant biophysics) in 1967, under the supervision of Enid MacRobbie, and specialising in the membrane transport processes and bioenergetics of giant-celled algae.
[11] In 1978, Raven was a co-founding editor of the influential peer reviewed scientific journal Plant, Cell & Environment with Paul Jarvis,[12] David Jennings, Harry Smith[13][14] and Bob Campbell.
[25] As of 2016[update], Raven was active in both research[26] and teaching, despite officially retiring in 2008 when he warned: Life has survived many rapid and large amplitude environmental changes over billions of years, but we should not be complacent about the biological effects of current anthropogenic influences on the environment.
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