Biotechnology YES finalists

Congratulations to Holly Astley, Sophie Janacek, Keith Macaulay and Bettina Otto on reaching the Biotechnology YES final in London, after winning their regional workshop in Edinburgh. Biotechnology YES is a scheme that introduces business skills and entrepreneurship to PhD students and 1st year postdocs, in a competition format. Their fictional company 'PhytoMetriX' developed a colour indicator system in wheat and maize plants to determine the nitrate levels in soil, changing colour when nitrate was low, thereby assisting farmers in feeding regimes.

Plant Scientists win teaching prize

The Pedagogy Project - comprising Frances Tracy, Katy Jordan and Keith Johnstone in the Department of Plant Sciences - has been awarded first place in the British Education Research Association (BERA) SAGE Awards 2007.

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Dr Julian Hibberd wins award

Dr Julian Hibberd was awarded the The Melvin Calvin Award of the International Society for Photosynthesis Research at a ceremony on 23 July at the 14th International Congress of Photosynthesis in Glasgow. The award is given every 3 years at the Congress.

Melvin Calvin was awarded a Nobel prize for working on the pathway of carbon dioxide fixation in photosynthesis. The Melvin Calvin award was initiated in 1998 by the Society to honor his contributions to photosynthesis research. It is a monetary award made for outstanding investigations into metabolic and cellular aspects of the photosynthetic process to a scientist who is under 40 years of age on January 1st of the year of the presentation, or is less than 10 years from the granting of the doctoral degree. It is accompanied by a small gratuity, sponsored by Springer.

Further details of the Society and the award are given on the IPSR website.

Professor John Parker elected to the Queen Victoria Eugenia British-Hispanic Chair of the Universidad Complutense de Madrid

Professor John Parker, Director of the Botanic Garden, Curator of the Herbarium and Professor of Plant Cytogenetics, has been elected to the Queen Victoria Eugenia British-Hispanic Chair of the Universidad Complutense de Madrid for the session 2007-2008. The visiting professorship will be held in the Faculty of Biology and will involve giving Public and University lectures and helping with the development of the Botanic Garden, the Herbarium and the Museum.

Alison Smith and Alex Webb promoted

Congratulations go to Alison Smith and Alex Webb on their promotions. Alison Smith has been promoted to Professor and Alex Webb to University Senior Lecturer.

Professor David Baulcombe FRS to be new Professor of Botany

The Department is pleased to announce the election of Professor David Baulcombe FRS, as the new Professor of Botany with effect from 1 September 2007. Professor Baulcombe, is currently a Senior Research Scientist at the Sainsbury Laboratory, John Innes Centre in Norwich Trained as a botanist, his research interests are in the area of plant gene expression generally. As a result of his studies of expressing viral genes in plants, he established the role of small RNAs in RNA silencing, a mechanism for regulation of gene expression that is universal (see an interview).

Professor Baulcombe has been the recipient of numerous prizes and awards in recognition of his work, including the Massry Prize from the Massry Foundation, University of Southern California in 2005 and the Wiley Prize in Biomedical Science from the Wiley Foundation, Rockefeller University, both shared with Craig Mello and Andrew Fire. He was elected to the Royal Society in 2001, and as a foreign associate member of the National Academy of Sciences (USA) in 2005.

Science Week roundup

Science week was a huge success, attracting large numbers of attendees on Saturday 17 March. Some photos are available here:

• Mushrooms growing on a toilet roll


• Searching for nectar


• CSI Botanic Garden


• Explaining the science 1


• Explaining the science 2