David Baulcombe was a student in Botany at Leeds (BSc) and Edinburgh (PhD)
Universities. After periods in Montreal, the University of Georgia and the Cambridge
Plant Breeding Institute he spent 20 years at the Sainsbury Laboratory, Norwich. He
joined Cambridge University in 2007 as Royal Society Research Professor and now as
Regius Professor of Botany. David is a Fellow of the Royal Society and a foreign
associate member of the US National Academy of Sciences. His awards include the
2006 Royal Medal of the Royal Society, the 2008 Lasker Award for basic biomedical
sciences, the Wolf Prize for Agriculture in 2010 and the 2012 Balzan Prize. He was
knighted in June 2009.
Research interests of David Baulcombe involve plants and he focuses on gene
silencing and epigenetics – the science of how nurture can influence nature. His
discoveries changed thinking about the role of RNA in the regulation of gene
expression of animals, plants and fungi. Recently his interests have focused on disease
resistance in plants and understanding hybrid crops. David is also interested in the
application of science to develop sustainable agriculture. He was a member of the
Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council and in 2009 he chaired a
Royal Society policy study on the contribution of biological science to food crop
productivity. He also chaired a group that produced a science update report for the
British Prime Minister about GM crops.
