The New Phytologist Foundation

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

"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.

"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.

"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.

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

New Phytologist Editor Keith Lindsey in conversation with Geraint Parry for the Arabidopsis Research Roundup (http://blog.garnetcommunity.org.uk/arabidopsis-research-roundup-3/). Keith describes work that aims to dissect the complex hormonal regulation of root growth, published in an Open Access paper by Rowe, et al.:

Rowe JH, Topping JF, Liu J, Lindsey K (2016) Abscisic acid regulates root growth under osmotic stress conditions via an interacting hormonal network with cytokinin, ethylene and auxin. New Phytolologist. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/nph.13882

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

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.

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 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.