Ottoline Leyser

Who is Ottoline Leyser?

Henrietta Miriam Ottoline Leyser CBE FRS is a British plant biologist.

Leyser is the daughter of Karl Leyser, a German-born historian, who being Jewish, fled from the Nazis. She received her BA degree from the University of Cambridge in 1986 and a PhD in Genetics in 1990 from the same University. Her research interests are in the genetics of plant development and the interaction of plant hormones with the environment. She has been Professor of Plant Development and Associate Director of the Sainsbury Laboratory Cambridge University since March 2011, having previously been Professor of Biology at the University of York.

Leyser was elected a fellow of the Royal Society and a member of the European Molecular Biology Organisation in 2007, and appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire in the 2009 New Year Honours. She is currently a member of the Nuffield Council on Bioethics and was a member of the Council’s Working Party on Biofuels. She was elected a foreign associate of the US National Academy of Sciences in 2012.