Professor Sarah Gurr

Professor Sarah Gurr is Chair in Food Security at Exeter University. This positiong nests within the Food Security and Research Land Alliance between the Universities of Exeter, Bath, Bristol and Cardiff and with Rothamsted. 

She was previously a Professor of Molecular Plant Pathology at Oxford University and formerly President of The British Society of Plant Pathology.

She studied at Imperial College London (BSc, ARCS, DIC and PhD), where she was awarded The Huxley Medal for her outstanding work.  She was a post-doctoral Fellow at St Andrews University and held a Royal Society University Research Fellowship in Molecular Plant Pathology. She was appointed Reader and Professor at Oxford (and Fellow of Somerville College), where she held a Leverhulme Trust Royal Society Senior Research and a NESTA Fellowship. She was formerly President of The British Society of Plant Pathology and sat on the BBSRC Council. Sarah also held the Donder’s Chair (Honorary) at Utrecht University and was awarded the President’s medal by BMS.

Her research interests are in crop diseases (particularly rice and wheat), with an emphasis on fungal infestations and their global movement and control. She is interested in fungal biotechnology. She has authored or co-authored over 100 publications, including a contribution to the recent Foresight report on “Biological Hazards”.