Ottoline Leyser leads about 130 plant scientists at the University of Cambridge. By Erik StokstadOttoline Leyser, a plant biologist at the University of Cambridge, will be the next director of the United Kingdom’s research funding agency, UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), the government announced today.“Many in the community will welcome the fact that the leadership of UKRI is passing into the hands of someone who is a highly respected scientist,” says James Wilsdon, a science policy expert at the University of Sheffield.
Leyser co-discovered the receptor for auxin, a hormone that controls plant growth. “I expect she will enter the job with a lot of goodwill,” says John Womersley, director-general of the European Spallation Source and