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Savanna hawk is a widespread species that invades formerly forested areas after clearance

Clearing rainforest for cattle farming is far worse for nature than previously thought, finds landmark bird survey

22 July 2025

In the largest ever survey of rainforest birdlife, scientists have discovered that deforestation to create pastureland in Colombia is causing around 60% more damage to biodiversity than previously estimated. Researchers have conducted the world’s biggest ever bird survey, recording 971 different species living in forests...

Colleagues at Botanicon 2025. Photo by Zara Guppy.

Plants @ Cambridge Botanicon brings together plant biologists from across the University

7 July 2025

This year’s Plants @ Cambridge Botanicon took place at St John's College on Friday 4 July. The event was organised by, and brought together, early-career researchers from across the plant biology network in Cambridge. The event involved a range of activities, including short talks, poster sessions and hot techniques...

Professor Julian Hibberd elected as a member of the European Molecular Biology Organisation

1 July 2025

Julian Hibberd , Professor of Photosynthesis and Head of the University of Cambridge Department of Plant Sciences joins the community of over 2,100 leading life scientists today as the European Molecular Biology Organisation (EMBO) announces its newest members. He is among 69 scientists from across Europe and beyond that...

Vibratome cross-section of a tomato stem attached by a Cuscuta haustorium, stained with toluidine blue. Photo by Min-Yao Jhu.

Review explores how plants tailor organ development to engage with friends and foes in symbiotic interactions

23 June 2025

Dr Min-Yao Jhu , Postdoctoral Research Associate in the Sustainable Crop Nutrition group at the Crop Science Centre (CSC), has published a review exploring how plants adaptively reuse core developmental pathways to build highly specialised organs during both mutualistic and parasitic interactions. The review, ' From hosts...

Illustrations of bladderworts from Roger Fry’s thesis on 'The hair structures of the bladders of Utricularia vulgaris'. Photo credit: University of Cambridge.

Thesis by famous Bloomsbury artist uncovered in Plant Sciences archives

16 June 2025

University of Cambridge Library and Archives staff have brought to light a handwritten and illustrated thesis by the famous Bloomsbury artist Roger Fry in the Department of Plant Sciences archives. Roger Fry graduated from King’s College Cambridge with a degree in Natural Sciences in 1888 before travelling to Italy and...

Greg Reeves in the kiwifruit orchard at the Kiwifruit Breeding Centre, Te Puke, New Zealand

Alumni stories: Greg Reeves

10 June 2025

Studying Plant Sciences at Cambridge can open up a wealth of career opportunities. In this series, we hear from Plant Sciences alumni about their experiences of studying here, how it shaped their careers and what they are doing now. If you would like your alumni story featured, please email us at alumni@plantsci.cam.ac.uk...

Jake Harris, Alison Smith and Paweł Mordaka from Cambridge University's Department of Plant Sciences

Cambridge researchers awarded £7.5 million to build programmable plants

2 June 2025

Imagine a plant with entirely new abilities – more nutritious food, crops that survive heatwaves, or leaves that grow useful materials. Two groups involving researchers from the University of Cambridge’s Department of Plant Sciences are among nine teams to have been awarded funding today from the UK’s Advanced Research +...

Professor Julian Hibberd elected as Fellow of the Royal Society

20 May 2025

Congratulations to Julian Hibberd , Professor of Photosynthesis and Head of the Department of Plant Sciences at the University of Cambridge, who has been elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society , the UK’s national academy of sciences. Professor Hibberd’s election is in recognition of his work on C4 photosynthesis. His...

Jenny Mortimer with the MAPHEUS 15 research rocket at Esrange Space Centre, Sweden

Alumni stories: Jenny Mortimer

13 May 2025

Postdoc Innovation Awards 2024: Unnati Sonawala talks about her pilot project

7 May 2025

The Postdoc Innovation Awards were launched in 2024 to fund innovations by Postdoctoral researchers in the Department of Plant Sciences. Two projects were funded as part of the pilot, and here Unnati Sonawala talks about her project 'Optimizing a high-throughput screen for nematode effector genes in tomato root protoplasts...

Clearing rainforest for cattle farming is far worse for nature than previously thought, finds landmark bird survey

Plants @ Cambridge Botanicon brings together plant biologists from across the University

Professor Julian Hibberd elected as a member of the European Molecular Biology Organisation

Review explores how plants tailor organ development to engage with friends and foes in symbiotic interactions

Thesis by famous Bloomsbury artist uncovered in Plant Sciences archives

Alumni stories: Greg Reeves

Cambridge researchers awarded £7.5 million to build programmable plants

Professor Julian Hibberd elected as Fellow of the Royal Society

Alumni stories: Jenny Mortimer

Postdoc Innovation Awards 2024: Unnati Sonawala talks about her pilot project

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