Celebrating 10 years of successful partnership

We have plans for further growth and strengthening of the partnership and we look forward to many more years of success.

The successful partnership between the James Hutton Institute and the College of Life Sciences at the University of Dundee will be celebrated at a 10 year anniversary symposium, Pathways to Impact in Plant Science on 6 September.

The partnership was first initiated in 2002 when plant scientists from the University of Dundee moved to what was then the Scottish Crop Research Institute (SCRI). Five years later the Division of Plant Sciences was established, following a reorganisation of the College of Life Sciences, and currently has around 45 scientists and PhD students located at the James Hutton Institute in Invergowrie.

Professor John Brown, Head of the Division of Plant Sciences said: “The co-location of scientists from the University at the James Hutton Institute has enabled interaction and collaboration between research groups and so far has generated around £8 million in joint funding in areas of translation of basic to applied research in areas such as plant disease, bioenergy and recombination.

“This unique model of interaction has exploited the complementarity of the two. We have plans for further growth and strengthening of the partnership and we look forward to many more years of success.”

Professor Iain Gordon, Chief Executive of the James Hutton Institute added: “We are delighted to be celebrating 10 years of the partnership between the Institute and University at this special one-day symposium.

“Speakers from both organisations, who conduct world-leading plant science research, will be joined by other prominent speakers from the UK and abroad to celebrate our excellent science and illustrate the impact it has on society.”

The Pathways to Impact in Plant Science symposium will be held at the Dalhousie Building, University of Dundee on 6 September 2012. It runs from 8.45am – 5pm and will be followed by a drinks reception.

Speakers at the symposium are:

• Professor Sir David Baulcombe, University of Cambridge
  “Challenges for the 21st century plant science”
• Professor Geoff Fincher, University of Adelaide
  “Plant Cell Wall Biology: Emerging Pathways to Impact”
• Professor Robbie Waugh, James Hutton Institute
  “Unlocking the barley genome”
• Professor Claire Halpin, University of Dundee
  “Barley, Biofuels and Biosequestration”
• Professor Jonathan Jones, Sainsbury Laboratory
  “How plant pathogenic oomycetes cause or fail to cause disease”
• Professor Paul Birch, University of Dundee
  “Trafficking arms: effectors of a plant pathogen that suppress, and trigger, the host immune system”
• Dr Glenn Bryan, James Hutton Institute
  “Insights gained from Solanaceae genome sequencing”
• Dr Jorunn Bos, James Hutton Institute – Royal Society of Edinburgh Fellow
  “Host cell modulation by aphid effector proteins”
• Dr Sarah McKim, University of Dundee – Royal Society of Edinburgh Fellow
  “Developmental mechanisms guiding spike maturation in barley”
• Professor Malcolm Bennett, University of Nottingham
  “Systems analysis of lateral root development: an emerging story”
• Dr Glyn Bengough, James Hutton Institute
• Professor George Kowalchuk, Netherlands Institute of Ecology
  “Plant-microbe interactions in a changing world”
• Professor Wayne Powell, University of Aberystwyth
  “Future perspectives”