Find all of our interviews with members of the plant science community in one place!

Interviews

Interview with Stéphane Maury (Université d'Orléans, France) at the 26th New Phytologist Symposium (May 2011, Nancy, France) www.newphytologist.org/symposiums/view/10
Stéphane was a poster prize winner at the symposium. His poster was entitled 'Epigenomics in poplar: the methylome of non-condensed chromatin'. In the interview he discusses his research in DNA methylation and its applications to bioenergy.

Interview Stéphane Maury at the 26th New Phytologist Symposium (May, 2011)

Interview with Oana Dima (Ghent University, Belgium) at the 26th New Phytologist Symposium (May 2011, Nancy, France) www.newphytologist.org/symposiums/view/10
Oana was a poster prize winner at the symposium. Her poster was entitled 'Profiling and localization of phenolics in Arabidopsis lignin mutants'. In the interview she discusses her research in lignin biosynthesis and its applications to bioenergy.

Interview with Oana Dima at the 26th New Phytologist Symposium (May 2011)

Interview with Hua Wang (Université Toulouse, France) at the 26th New Phytologist Symposium (May 2011, Nancy, France) www.newphytologist.org/symposiums/view/10
Hua was a poster prize winner at the symposium. Her poster was entitled 'Studies of auxin responses mediators in wood formation in Eucalyptus'. In the interview she discusses her research into auxin mediatiors involved in wood formation in Eucalyptus and its applications to bioenergy.

Interview with Hua Wang at the 26th New Phytologist Symposium (May, 2011)

New Phytologist Editor Dr Amy Austin was recently awarded the L’Oréal-UNESCO prize for Women in Science in Argentina, for her project ‘Effects of afforestation on carbon and nitrogen cycling in natural ecosystems of Patagonia, Argentina’. Amy is an Associate Professor in the Faculty of Agronomy at the University of Buenos Aires, a Principal Research Scientist at the Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Tecnológicas (CONICET) and has been an Editor of New Phytologist since 2009. Speaking to New Phytologist, Amy explained that one of the main aims of the award is to increase the visibility of women in science  by highlighting the work of female researchers in all fields of science, adding that 2015 is the first year that the prize has been awarded to an ecologist in Argentina. One of her next projects, making use of the $200,000 Pesos award, will be to continue to support her research group in an effort to determine the impact of ponderosa pine plantations on the natural ecosystems of the Patagonian region in South America.

Amy Austin, L’Oréal-UNESCO Women in Science prize winner, Argentina

An interview with Dr Alexander Jones of the Sainsbury Laboratory, Cambridge University, UK, and winner of the 2015 New Phytologist Tansley Medal for excellence in plant science. In this interview, Alexander describes his research on the role of phytohormones in plant cell physiology and development, and how he was inspired to revisit an old question in plant science for his Tansley insight review.

Listen to the interview to hear Alexander's tips for early career plant scientists, and how his passion for plant science grew out of a love of gardening. 

Alexander's Tansley insight can be read here: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/nph.13552/abstract

Find out more about the New Phytologist Tansley Medal competition here: https://www.newphytologist.org/tansleymedal

Interview with Alexander Jones - winner of the Tansley Medal 2015

New Phytologist Editor Mark Rausher received the Sewall Wright Award at the 2016 Evolution Conference in Austin, Texas. Our Development Coordinator Mike Whitfield caught up with Mark to find out more about the award, Mark's career in plant science and evolutionary biology, and his advice for early career researchers.

Visit the New Phytologist Trust website for a transcript of the interview: https://www.newphytologist.org/news/view/123

More information on the American Society of Naturalists Sewall Wright Award: http://www.amnat.org/awards.html#Wright

Interview with Mark Rausher - winner of the Sewall Wright Award at Evolution 2016

"My advice for early career researchers: once you've written a manuscript, ask friends and colleagues, particularly those outside your field, to have a look at it."

Editor-in-Chief, Alistair Hetherington, talks about his role at the journal, what makes a great paper, why you should submit your manuscript to New Phytologist, and some tips for early career researchers.

http://www.newphytologist.com

Recorded at the 38th New Phytologist Symposium: Colonization of the terrestrial environment by Leeds Media, July 2016.

Interview with Alistair Hetherington, Editor-in-Chief, New Phytologist

"Be curious, be passionate, and learn from people around you. Trust your curiosity and let it be your teacher."

New Phytologist Editor Maarja Öpik talks about her work in plant science and plant-fungi interactions, describes why she became a scientist, and provides some advice for early-career researchers.

Recorded at the 38th New Phytologist Symposium: Colonization of the terrestrial environment, by Leeds Media, July 2016.

Interview with Maarja Öpik, Interaction Editor, New Phytologist

"I think one of the most exciting results of the paper is the clear phenotype. When you are doing an experiment in the greenhouse and you harvest the plants, you really see a very strong effect when the plants are colonised by beneficial microbes."

New Phytologist author Ainhoa Martínez-Medina tells us why a fungus might not be such a bad thing for tomatoes, in the fight against nematodes, provides some tips for early career researchers, and shares who inspired her to be a scientist.

Read the paper: Martínez-Medina, A., Fernandez, I., Lok, G. B., Pozo, M. J., Pieterse, C. M. J. and Van Wees, S. C. M. (2016) Shifting from priming of salicylic acid- to jasmonic acid-regulated defences by Trichoderma protects tomato against the root knot nematode Meloidogyne incognita. New Phytologist. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/nph.14251

Ainhoa was speaking to Mike Whitfield.

With a little help from my fungus: interview with Ainhoa Martínez-Medina

Etienne Laliberté, winner of the 2016 New Phytologist Tansley Medal for excellence in plant science, describes how he became interested in plant science, the thought process behind his Tansley insight 'Below-ground frontiers in trait-based plant ecology', the hot topics in the field and his advice for early-career researchers.

Read Etienne's Tansley insight: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/nph.14247/full

Find out more about the New Phytologist Tansley Medal: https://www.newphytologist.org/tansleymedal

Interview with Etienne Laliberté - winner of the Tansley Medal 2016

'Pursue questions that really interest you, do things that you like to do - I think that that's the best advice - because if you can maintain that enthusiasm, if you really maintain the joy in what you're doing in science, that will transmit itself into a successful career.'

Professor Amy Austin, University of Buenos Aires, Argentina, is an Editor for New Phytologist, in the Environment section of the journal. She is the 2018 L'Oréal-UNESCO For Women in Science Laureate for Latin America: https://www.fondationloreal.com/posts/2018-l-oreal-unesco-for-women-in-science-awards/fr

Interview with Amy Austin, Environment Editor, New Phytologist

'Don't be put off if your experiment doesn't seem to have worked if you're doing experiments, or if your data doesn't seem to fit - that's probably going to be the most interesting thing that you've done so far.'

Listen to our interview with Prof Colin Brownlee to find out how he became interested in plant science and hear his tips for early career researchers.

Interview with Colin Brownlee, Physiology & Development Editor, New Phytologist

"There are three important qualities in a good scientist: dedication, communication, and openness."

Prof Francis Martin is Section Editor for the Interaction section of New Phytologist. Listen to the interview to find out what he thinks the hot topics in plant-soil interactions are, and his advice for early career researchers.

Interview with Francis Martin, Interaction Section Editor

Sascha Ismail and Chris Kettle describe their recent New Phytologist paper, 'Evaluating realised seed dispersal across fragmented tropical landscapes: a two-fold approach using parentage analysis and the neighbourhood model', their careers, and top tips for early career researchers.

Read the paper: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/nph.14427/abstract

Interview with Sascha Ismail and Chris Kettle

The New Phytologist Foundation is a not-for-profit organisation dedicated to the promotion of plant science. We own two journals: New Phytologist, and Plants, People, Planet. Our activities range from funding symposia and workshops, to sponsoring prizes for early career researchers, to ensuring free access for a wide range of published research articles.