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Regius Professor of Botany, University of Cambridge
Professor Dame Ottoline Leyser is Regius Professor of Botany at the Department of Plant Sciences at the University of Cambridge.
Prior to this Ottoline was Director of the Sainsbury Laboratory, University of Cambridge. Her research focuses on multiscale distributed regulatory systems in plant development, using the modulation of shoot branching by nitrate availability in Arabidopsis as a model system. The work combines classical and molecular genetics, with cell biology, physiology and computational modelling to understand the hormonal networks that deliver adaptive developmental plasticity.
Ottoline has a long-term interest in research culture and its effects on the quality and effectiveness of the research system. She served as CEO of UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) from 2020-2025, and she chaired the Nuffield Council on Bioethics project. A particular focus has been on the related topics of research and innovation culture - how to foster vibrant, creative, successful research and innovation environments where people and ideas thrive; and how to break down the barriers between science and wider society.
She is a Fellow of the Royal Society, a Member of the Leopoldina and EMBO, and an International Member of the US National Academy of Sciences. In 2017 she was appointed DBE for services to plant science, science in society and equality and diversity in science.
