Photo by the Danforth Center
Congratulations to Giles Oldroyd, an alum of the Department of Plant and Microbial Biology, on being named the next president of the Danforth Plant Science Center.
The Danforth Center was founded in 1998 as a not-for-profit research institute with a mission to improve the human condition through plant science. The Center, which is based in St. Louis, Missouri, focuses on research, education, and outreach at the nexus of food security and the environment.
An internationally recognized plant geneticist, Oldroyd was a graduate student in the lab of PMB professor Brian Staskawicz (now Director of Sustainable Agriculture at the Innovative Genomics Institute) and earned his PhD in 1998. Oldroyd is best known for expanding scientific understanding of the symbiotic interactions between plants and beneficial bacteria and fungi that aid in the uptake of nutrients, especially nitrogen and phosphorus.
Oldroyd is currently a professor and founding director of the Crop Science Centre at the University of Cambridge. He will step into his new role at the Danforth Center on October 1.
Revisit our profile of Oldroyd in our Fall 2023 department newsletter.