News

We are delighted to share that Professor Beverley Glover and Professor Uta Paszkowski from the Department of Plant Sciences at the University of Cambridge have been elected as Fellows of the Royal Society, the UK’s national academy of sciences and the oldest science academy in continuous existence. Professor Julian Hibberd, Head of the Department o…

On 14 and 15 May, the Department of Plant Sciences at the University of Cambridge hosted researchers from Europe, the US and Japan for the ASPIRE-GreenTE network event at St John’s College, Cambridge. This meeting brought together two complementary international initiatives: the ASPIRE programme, which supports global research partnerships and rese…

New analysis shows 85% of carbon emissions from the 2025 Dava Moor Fire in Scotland came from peat combustion, signalling a dangerous shift in how wildfires behave in historically boggy landscapes.New analysis of carbon emissions from the 2025 Dava Moor Fire in Scotland could mark a shift in the risk of big, destructive, carbon-intensive wildfires …

Field trials in India show that bio-fertilisers containing naturally occurring soil fungi enhance growth in rice plants. This may offer a pathway to reducing farmers’ reliance on synthetic fertilisers, and reducing greenhouse gas emissions in rice farming.The trials, led by researchers at the Department of Plant Sciences, Cambridge in partnership U…

Researchers have found that a multi-protein molecular switch used by modern plants to determine cell fate originated in the earliest land plants nearly half a billion years ago. The study shows how this system was repurposed over millennia, allowing plants to adapt to life on land. While scientists already knew that this regulatory mechanism – the …

What do potatoes, pigs and pollinators have in common?They’re all vital in feeding the growing human population – but modern intensive farming has created huge problems we can no longer ignore. “We're taking more out of the environment than the environment can sustain. If you consider nature as capital, it’s like liquidating your assets,” says Lyn…

A major analysis led by the University of Cambridge has found that many REDD+ projects achieved meaningful reductions in forest loss – offering real environmental benefits.This is despite the study confirming that almost eleven times more carbon credits were issued from the REDD+ (Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation) voluntary carb…

From PhD in Plant Sciences to a dynamic career in biotech – Holly Astley shares how her time at Cambridge shaped her path from laboratory scientist to increasingly multifaceted project focused roles.Studying Plant Sciences at Cambridge can open up a wealth of career opportunities. In this series, we hear from Plant Sciences alumni about their exper…

Congratulations to Professor Uta Paszkowski whose election to the US National Academy of Sciences (NAS) was formally recognised at the NAS signing ceremony on 24 April 2026, marking her official induction as an International Member of one of the world’s most prestigious scientific institutions.During the ceremony members elected in 2025 are introdu…

Thea Kongsted completed her PhD in Plant Sciences in 2024, studying at Jesus College, Cambridge and working with Beverley Glover in the Evolution and Development group at the Department of Plant Sciences.Here she talks about how she benefitted from the Tom ap Rees fund whilst studying in Cambridge, and what she has gone on to do since.To find out m…

Natural Sciences students reflect on this year’s Evolutionary Biology field course which took place in Pembrokeshire in April 2026. Twenty-five first-year Evolutionary Biology students spent a week in south-west Wales learning about plants, animals and fossils in the windswept and beautiful surroundings of the Dale Fort Field Centre over the Easter…

More than a spring spectacle, bluebells reveal a mix of chemistry, ecology and conservation beneath their familiar blue.Every April, Britain’s woodlands are transformed by one of spring’s most anticipated spectacles: the beautiful British bluebell (Hyacinthoides non-scripta). Behind this cultural icon lies a plant with a fascinating biology.In reco…

Cambridge researchers have identified a minimal toolkit of genes that controls how plants grow, revealing a biological system that has remained virtually unchanged for over 450 million years. By studying the liverwort Marchantia polymorpha, a team from the Haseloff group in the Department of Plant Sciences has provided a new framework for understan…

A study from the University of Cambridge Department of Plant Sciences sheds new light on how one of the world’s oldest land plants, the liverwort Marchantia polymorpha, builds and fills its specialised chemical storage units. The research advances our understanding of how the plant produces and stores valuable natural compounds and could transform …

We are devastated to share the news that former Part II student, friend and collaborator Professor Philippa Borrill died over the Easter weekend following a rare immune system disorder (HLH). Philippa graduated in Plant Sciences in 2010 before moving directly to the John Innes Centre for her PhD.  She was a fantastic scientist, collaborator and men…