Lawrence Carroll Fowke was born 6 June 1941 in Toronto, and raised in Saskatoon. He earned a BA (Biology) from the University of Saskatchewan in 1963 and his PhD from Carleton University (1968) in plant cytology. Following a two year postdoctoral fellowship at the Australian National University in Canberra, in 1970 he joined the Department of Biology at the University of Saskatchewan as an assistant professor. By 1979 was a full professor. Author of over 160 research papers, Fowke has been appointed visiting scientist at universities and research institutes in Australia, Switzerland, Sweden and England. He has been awarded the Distinguished Researcher Award and named Jarislowsky Chair in Biotechnology and Rawson Professor in Biology. He was recognized as an ISI Highly Cited Researcher in the plant and animal category. Dr. Fowke served as an editor for Plant Cell Reports and has served on the editorial boards of three other botanical and cell biology journals. He was nominated three times for the USSU Teaching Excellence Award. In 2006, the University of Saskatchewan awarded him an earned Doctor of Science degree.