Private Passions

Professor Dame Ottoline Leyser first realised plants are extraordinary and astonishing at school, when introduced to the round and wrinkled peas of Gregor Mendel. She is fascinated by plant genetics and as Regius Professor of Botany at the University of Cambridge her particular focus has been on a hormone called auxin which controls the growth of plants.

In 2020, she was appointed the chief executive of UK Research and Innovation whose mission is to work in partnership with research organisations, universities, businesses, charities and government to “push the frontiers of human knowledge and understanding" and deliver economic, social and cultural impact, with a budget of more than £8 billion each year.

Dame Ottoline is a fellow of the Royal Society and in 2017 she was appointed DBE for services to plant science, science in society and equality and diversity in science.

Her music choices include Mozart, Vaughan Williams and Debussy.