Giles Oldroyd
{{Short description|British biologist}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}{{Infobox scientist
| birth_name = Giles Edward Dixon Oldroyd
| honorific_suffix = {{post-nominals|country=GBR|FRS|size=100}}
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| nationality = British
| fields = Plant symbioses
| workplaces = University of Cambridge
Stanford University
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| education = University of East Anglia
University of California, Berkeley
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| thesis_title = Identification and characterization of Prf a resistance gene in tomato
| thesis_url = http://oskicat.berkeley.edu/record=b15788202
| thesis_year = 1998
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| notable_students = Yiliang Ding
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| awards = Royal Society Wolfson Research Merit Award
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| website = {{URL|https://www.slcu.cam.ac.uk/people/giles-oldroyd}}
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Giles Edward Dixon Oldroyd {{post-nominals|country=GBR|FRS}} is a professor at the University of Cambridge,{{Google scholar id}}{{Cite web |title=Professor Giles Oldroyd |url=https://www.slcu.cam.ac.uk/directory/giles-oldroyd |website=Sainsbury Laboratory}} working on beneficial Legume symbioses in Medicago truncatula.{{cite journal |last1= Oldroyd | first1= Giles .E.D. |last2= Downie |first2= J. Allan |date= 2008 |title= Coordinating Nodule Morphogenesis with Rhizobial Infection in Legumes |doi = 10.1146/annurev.arplant.59.032607.092839 |volume=59 |journal=Annual Review of Plant Biology |pages=519–546 |pmid=18444906}} He has been a Royal Society Wolfson Research Merit Award winner and the Society of Biology (SEB) President's Medal winner.{{Cite web |title=PRESIDENT'S MEDALLISTS |url=http://www.sebiology.org/Documents/Meetings/Pres_Meds.pdf |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304134227/http://www.sebiology.org/Documents/Meetings/Pres_Meds.pdf |archive-date=2016-03-04 |access-date=2015-01-19 |website=Society for Experimental Biology}} From 2014 Oldroyd has been in the top 1% of highly cited plant scientists across the world.{{Cite web |title=Giles Oldroyd's Publons profile |url=https://publons.com/researcher/4420149/giles-oldroyd/ |access-date=2022-06-08 |website=Publons |language=en}}
Education
Oldroyd attended Huntington School, York before studying for a BA degree in plant biology at the University of East Anglia from 1990 to 1994.{{cite web |title=Professor Giles Oldroyd |url=https://www.plantsci.cam.ac.uk/directory/giles-oldroyd |website=Department of Plant Sciences, University of Cambridge |access-date=29 April 2024}} He completed his PhD in 1998 at the University of California, Berkeley, studying plant/pathogen interactions in tomatoes.{{cite thesis|degree=PhD|year=1998|title=Identification and characterization of Prf a resistance gene in tomato|url= http://oskicat.berkeley.edu/record=b15788202| publisher=University of California, Berkeley|oclc=42329477|first=Giles Edward Dixon |last=Oldroyd}}
Career and research
After his PhD, he moved to Stanford University to work as a postdoctoral scientist studying legume/rhizobial interactions in the laboratory of Sharon R. Long.{{cite journal |last1= Oldroyd | first1= G.E.D |last2= Wais |first2= R. J |last3= Galera |first3= C |last4=Catoira |first4=R |last5=Penmetsa |first5=R. V |last6=Cook |first6=D |last7=Gough |first7=C |last8= Denarie |first8=J |last9=Long |first9=S. R |date= 2000 |title= Genetic analysis of calcium spiking responses in nodulation mutants of Medicago truncatula | doi = 10.1073/pnas.230439797 |volume=97 |journal=Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences | issue= 24 |pages=13407–13412 |pmid=11078514 |pmc=27237| bibcode= 2000PNAS...9713407W | doi-access= free }}{{Cite web |title=Giles Oldroyd profile |url=http://www.icrisat.org/gt-bt/VI-ICLGG/oldroyd.pdf |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150119163630/http://www.icrisat.org/gt-bt/VI-ICLGG/oldroyd.pdf |archive-date=2015-01-19 |access-date=2015-01-19}}{{Cite web |date=2006-07-14 |title=Passion drives the best and brightest in biology |url=http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/news/passion-drives-the-best-and-brightest-in-biology/204280.article |website=THE - Times Higher Education}} In 2002, Oldroyd moved to the John Innes Centre to start his own research group and in 2017 he moved his research group to the Sainsbury Laboratory, University of Cambridge. In 2020 Oldroyd was appointed to the Russel R Geiger Professorship of Crop Science in the Department of Plant Sciences, University of Cambridge and Director of the new Crop Science Centre, a partnership between the University of Cambridge and the National Institute of Agricultural Botany.
Oldroyd's work focuses on understanding the signalling mechanisms that allow the associations with these beneficial micro-organisms and the use of this information to transfer the nitrogen-fixing capability from legumes to cereal crops.
His website says "Our work has implications for global agriculture, but we are most interested in the application of our work to benefit small-holder farmers in Sub-Saharan Africa".
In 2012 Oldroyd was awarded a $10m research grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation in collaboration with other symbiosis research groups. Their aim is to engineer cereal crops such as maize to undergo the beneficial root nodule symbiosis in order to obtain the nutrient Nitrogen without the application of agricultural fertilisers.{{Cite news | url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-18845282 |title = GM crop scientists win $10m grant|work = BBC News|date = 2012-07-15}}{{Cite web|url=https://www.ensa.ac.uk/|title=ENSA - Enabling Nutrient Symbioses in Agriculture}} The Enabling Nutrient Symbioses in Agriculture (ENSA) project received a further $35 million grant from Bill & Melinda Gates Agricultural Innovations in 2023.{{Cite web|url=https://www.cam.ac.uk/research/news/cambridge-led-consortium-receives-35m-to-boost-crop-production-sustainably-in-sub-saharan-africa |title=Cambridge-led consortium receives $35m to boost crop production sustainably in sub-Saharan Africa}}
As of March 2023, he has an h-index of 81 according to Google Scholar.
=Awards and honours=
- BBSRC David Phillips Fellow 2002-2007
- Royal Society Wolfson Research Merit Award 2002-2005{{Cite web |title=Giles Oldroyd {{!}} Faculty Member |url=http://f1000.com/prime/thefaculty/member/1369729506246536 |website=Faculty Opinions}}
- European Molecular Biology Organization Young Investigator Award 2005-2008
- Presidents Medal, Society for Experimental Biology (SEB), 2006
- European Research Council young investigator 2009–Present
- Thomson Reuters Top 1% Highly cited researcher 2014
- Elected a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS) 2020 {{cite web |title=Giles Oldroyd |url=https://royalsociety.org/people/Giles-Oldroyd-25284/ |access-date=19 September 2020 |website=The Royal Society}}
References
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Category:Year of birth missing (living people)
Category:Alumni of the University of East Anglia
Category:University of California, Berkeley alumni
Category:Fellows of Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge
Category:21st-century British biologists
Category:British LGBTQ scientists
Category:Fellows of the Royal Society
Category:Foreign associates of the National Academy of Sciences