We are pleased to announce that Professor Nick Talbot, Executive Director and Group Leader at The Sainsbury Laboratory (TSL), has received the 2026 BSPP RKS Wood Prize and will be giving a lecture on his achievements at our conference, Plant Pathology 2026.
The RKS Wood prize is named and awarded in honour of Professor RKS Wood to acknowledge his role in driving the establishment of the discipline “Physiological Plant Pathology”. The prize celebrates excellent science in the study of plant disease biology and its application in the protection of plants against pathogens. You can read more and see our previous winners by following this link.
Professor Nick Talbot received his PhD from the University of East Anglia and, after postdoctoral research at Purdue University (USA), he joined the University of Exeter as a Lecturer. He went on to become Professor of Molecular Genetics, Head of the School of Biosciences, and later Deputy Vice-Chancellor for Research. In 2018, Nick returned to his academic roots in Norwich, relocating his research group to take on his current role as Executive Director of The Sainsbury Laboratory (TSL).
Nick is internationally recognised for his pioneering research on the rice blast fungus Magnaporthe oryzae, which causes the most severe disease of cultivated rice. Rice blast disease destroys up to a third of the annual global rice harvest, which is enough rice to feed 60 million people. His group employs a range of cell biology, genetics and genomics approaches to dissect the precise molecular and cellular events that occur during infection by the rice blast fungus. In particular, their work has shed light on how the fungus forms specialised infection structures, called appressoria, to penetrate rice plants, invade plant tissue, and suppress plant immunity.
To control fungal diseases, rice growers can cultivate varieties bred or genetically modified to carry resistance genes. However, fungal pathogens can rapidly evolve to overcome such strategies. Nick’s group is therefore also focusing on mining rice genomes for novel resistance genes to improve long-term disease management. He has led large-scale programmes aimed at developing rice varieties with durable disease resistance for sub-Saharan Africa.
The impact of Nick’s research – spanning over 220 publications – has attracted funding from the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council, The Leverhulme Trust, The Halpin Scholars Programme, and The Gatsby Charitable Foundation. He has also been awarded two prestigious European Research Council Advanced Grants and is recognised as a Highly Cited Researcher by the Institute for Scientific Information.
In recognition of his scientific excellence, Nick is a Fellow of the Royal Society, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Biology, a member of the European Molecular Biology Organisation, a member of Academia Europaea, and was elected Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 2025.
Beyond his research, Nick is a dedicated mentor and advocate for equity in science. He has trained scientists from 24 countries, supervised 44 PhD students, and champions open science, promoting the sharing of research protocols, preprints, and peer reviews.
In light of Nick’s exceptional research contributions, his dedication to scientific outreach, and his significant impact on the scientific community, he is the deserving candidate for this year’s RKS Wood Prize.
