Professor Ottoline Leyser has been named as the new Director of the Sainsbury Laboratory.
Professor Leyser, formerly Associate Director of the Laboratory and also Professor of Plant Development at the Department of Plant Sciences, said: “This is a really exciting time to be a plant biologist. We have an impressive array of tools and technologies to make rapid progress, and the Sainsbury Laboratory will be at the forefront of a new integrative approach to understanding biological systems.”
Professor Leyser received her BA and PhD in Genetics from the University of Cambridge. After postdoctoral research at Indiana University and Cambridge, she built an independent research programme at the University of York, where she worked from 1994 until 2010.
She was appointed a CBE in the 2009 New Year Honours list, is a Fellow of the Royal Society, a Foreign Associate of the US National Academy of Sciences and a Member of the European Molecular Biology Organisation.
Professor Sir David Baulcombe, Regis Professor of Botany and Chair of the Sainsbury Laboratory Management Board said: “We warmly welcome the appointment of Professor Leyser to the Directorship of the Laboratory. She has worked in partnership with inaugural Director Professor Elliot Meyerowitz to establish the Laboratory and recruit the founding group leaders. We look forward to her continued work in developing research, recruitment and collaborations.”