Elected: 2020
Discipline: Organismal and Environmental Biology
Professor Lesley Torrance
Professor of Virology, University of St Andrews
My current research concerns developing stress resilient potato varieties that are suitable for growing in potato systems in Sub Saharan Africa (particularly Kenya and Malawi). I have a general interest in international development and am a member of the CGIAR International Science for Development Council. I have current research collaborators in Africa and China. I am responsible for overseeing the Scottish Government funded science programme at Hutton and managing the crop and ecological sciences Departments. And am the Executive Director of Science responsible for the flagship initiatives of the International Barley Hub and Advanced Plant Growth Centre. I am a non-exec director of the Dundee Science Centre.