Dr Jess Dunn, a Research Fellow at the University of Sheffield’s Institute for Sustainable Food (ISF), has been awarded a three-year BBSRC Fellowship that will begin later this year (2025). BBSRC Fellowships are highly sought-after awards offered to researchers who have demonstrated great potential to become future leaders in their fields.
Jess is a plant scientist specialising in plant physiology (the study of how plants function) and development. Much of her work explores how plant development influences function and stress resilience.
Jess’ BBSRC fellowship, ‘The ins and outs of reproductive stomata: a new route to enhancing crop yields and heat resilience’, will explore plant reproductive physiology in globally important cereal crops, such as wheat and rice. Her research will define the unknown function(s) and developmental regulation of reproductive stomata (microscopic pores that enable carbon dioxide uptake and cooling) and explore whether they offer a novel route to improving cereal productivity (measured as the amount of cereal grain produced from a given area of land) and heat resilience.
As part of her fellowship, Jess will lead an international collaboration with the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Centre (CIMMYT, Mexico) to investigate variation in wheat spike cooling and photosynthesis in heat stressed field trials. This work has the potential to offer novel targets for crop breeders and insights for improving productivity and yield resilience for the ongoing climate crisis. Developing new strategies to improve yields, whilst protecting them from extreme weather events like heat waves, is becoming increasingly critical.
Institute for Sustainable Food Research Fellow, Dr Jess Dunn, said, “I feel incredibly privileged and pleased to be awarded the BBSRC fellowship, and am really excited to have this opportunity to conduct my research on wheat spikes and rice panicles. I am also very grateful to be undertaking my fellowship as part of a supportive community of inspiring researchers in both the Plants, Photosynthesis and Soil research cluster and the Institute for Sustainable Food.”
Jess currently holds an Institute for Sustainable Food research fellowship and is enthusiastic about mentoring others and working to create a positive research culture. She has supervised and mentored numerous students, many of whom have gone on to do further research in various settings. Jess actively works to improve the research environment for her community and has roles on both the executive board and Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) committee for the ISF, as well as on the communications committee for the Plants, Photosynthesis and Soil research cluster.
Co-Director at the Institute for Sustainable Food, Professor Peter Jackson, said, "We're delighted to have supported Jess Dunn’s successful application for a BBSRC Fellowship. As well as providing practical support and advice, the Institute helps candidates like Jess to set their specific research interests in terms of the wider ‘grand challenges’ that we are seeking to address. Congratulations Jess – we’re proud of you!"