David Baulcombe
Head of Group, Regius Professor of Botany, Royal Society Research Professor,Department of Plant Sciences, University of Cambridge, UK
Much of David Baulcombe’s current research follows from the discovery in his Norwich laboratory of a novel type of regulatory RNA - siRNA. Current projects in his laboratory focus on the mechanisms of siRNA-mediated regulation including their influence on epigenetics and natural variation. In this respect, his work links with his predecessor JS Henslow who was Professor of Botany in the nineteen century and who influenced Darwin.
He serves on several committees and study sections, was elected Member of the European Molecular Biology Organisation in 1997 and was president of the International Society of Plant Molecular Biology 2003–2004. Baulcombe has received numerous honors and awards throughout his long and distinguished career, including being elected to the U.K.’s Royal Society (which awarded him the Royal Medal in 2006), the U.S.’s National Academy of Sciences as a foreign associate and the Lasker Prize for Biomedical Science in 2008. In June 2009, Baulcombe was awarded a knighthood, the U.K’s highest civil service honor by Queen Elizabeth II.