News

Two Cambridge Natural Sciences students, Jeremy Zheng and Phoebe Bintoro, have been awarded national British Society for Plant Pathology (BSPP) prizes for their outstanding achievements in plant pathology.The annual BSPP awards recognise exceptional undergraduate performance across the UK, with winners chosen through a blind review of university no…

Hundreds of visitors joined researchers from the Department of Plant Sciences and across the University of Cambridge plant biology community for this year’s Fungi Field Day. The event, organised by Dr Jen McGaley from the Department of Plant Sciences and Dr Raphaella Hull from Cambridge University Botanic Garden, was held at the Botanic Garden in c…

Research from the Epidemiology and Modelling group in collaboration with colleagues in 17 African countries predicts the spread of cassava brown streak virus (CBSV) across sub-Saharan Africa. The Cambridge team has built the first continental-scale model to predict CBSV spread across all 32 major cassava-growing countries in the region using survei…

Forests are major carbon sinks threatened by climate change and human activity yet monitoring them at scale remains a major scientific challenge. Two projects involving Dr Adriane Esquivel-Muelbert, Cambridge’s Head of Global Change Ecology, are using the latest technology to help solve this problem, and open new avenues of research into the life a…

The Africa Crop Forum 2026, held on 12-14 October in Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire, was a catalyst for new ideas and partnerships to tackle field realities in Africa. Organised by WAVE RESEARCH and the Crop Science Centre - part of the Department of Plant Sciences at the University of Cambridge - the Africa Crop Forum brought together researchers, plant b…

Dr Adriane Esquivel Muelbert, Head of Global Change Ecology at Cambridge, has been awarded a prestigious Philip Leverhulme Prize for her work on the impacts of global change on forest biodiversity and ecosystem functioning.Dr Esquivel Muelbert is one of 30 winners of the 2026 Philip Leverhulme Prize announced by the Leverhulme Trust today.Chosen fr…

The new Coastal Ecology and Conservation field course ran for the first time this September taking students to salt marshes, sand dunes, rivers and conservation sites in North Norfolk.The trip, jointly organised with the Department of Zoology, was an opportunity for students to hone their bird and plant identification skills, design their own exper…

A landmark study led by the University of Cambridge’s Department of Plant Sciences and Centre for Global Wood Security formally defines the concept of global wood security and identifies the 20 greatest challenges to wood security in the 21st century.The authors urge the international community to elevate wood security alongside food, energy, and w…

The Department of Plant Sciences at the University of Cambridge welcomes approaches from Early Career Researchers who wish to hold an externally funded Post-Doctoral research fellowship from a UK or international research sponsor in the department. Our research covers broad areas of plant science, from genetics and molecular biology, through photos…

Researchers from the Plant-Parasite Interactions group are using 3D-printed robots and AI to massively accelerate screening plants for nematode resistance – with the eventual aim of identifying genes that could help develop naturally resilient crops for global food security.Plant-parasitic nematodes represent a significant, yet often invisible, thr…

In our ‘Science to solutions’ series we talk to Cambridge scientists working with industry, business, NGO and other partners to help solve real-world problems using cutting-edge research.Rachel Russell is a 3rd year PhD student in Professor Nik Cunniffe’s Quantitative Plant Health group in the Department of Plant Sciences. Her research focuses on o…

Research led by Danai Kontou as part of her PhD thesis while in the Ecosystems and Global Change group at Cambridge, has found that one of North America’s most ecologically and economically damaging invaders, the spiny water flea, may have been in North America for centuries longer than believed. She discusses the implications for how governments a…

Researchers in the Tropical Ecology and Conservation group have conducted the most comprehensive study to date on how habitat restoration in sub-Saharan Africa impacts tree loss beyond project boundaries.Largest study to date of how restoration affects tree loss beyond project boundaries in sub-Saharan AfricaResearchers analysed nearly 130,000 rest…

Researchers have analysed aerial laser scans of huge areas across the Cairngorms Connect partnership in the Scottish Highlands, to produce incredibly detailed maps showing millions of young trees have naturally established following an increase in deer culling.A University of Cambridge-led team has used aerial surveys across a huge swathe of the Ca…

Research from the Cereal Symbiosis group shows how rising carbon dioxide (CO₂) levels affect nutrient uptake in rice and highlights the importance of beneficial soil fungi as a vital ally for sustaining crop yields and carbon storage in a changing climate.As atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO₂) levels continue to climb, researchers are working to under…