Nick Talbot Elected AAAS Fellow for Open Science and Global Collaboration
We are delighted to announce that our Executive Director, Professor Nick Talbot, has been elected as a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)
"for advancing scientific understanding and public awareness of fungal plant diseases and for leadership in fostering equity, global collaboration, and access to genomic resources."
AAAS Fellows are a distinguished cadre recognised for their achievements across disciplines, from research, teaching and technology to administration in academia, industry and government to excellence in communicating and interpreting science to the public. Nick is the fourth current TSL group leader to receive this distinguished lifetime honour within the scientific community, joining Professors Jonathan Jones, Sophien Kamoun, and Wenbo Ma.
Nick says: "I am deeply honoured to be elected as an AAAS Fellow. This recognition is a testament not only to the discoveries of my research group but also to the dedication of my collaborators and the progressive, inclusive research culture we champion at TSL. Open science and global collaboration are fundamental to addressing the world's most pressing challenges, and I am pleased to see these values recognised."
Nick’s research focuses on the rice blast fungus (Magnaporthe oryzae), which causes the most serious disease of cultivated rice. His team has made important discoveries of how the fungus infects plants, advancing the development of durable blast-resistant rice varieties for sub-Saharan Africa.
Jonathan Jones, fellow group leader at TSL, says: “I’m delighted to see Nick’s superb scientific accomplishments recognised in this prestigious award- it’s very well deserved.”
Beyond his scientific achievements, Nick is an advocate for open science and equity. TSL has embraced transparency by openly sharing research protocols, findings, and preprint reviews. He also chairs the Trustee Board of GetGenome, a TSL-founded charity that provides free genome sequencing to scientists from low-income countries.
“I have been inspired by the commitment to open science championed by Sophien Kamoun, in particular, and all my colleagues at TSL. It is something we think is vital for the advancement of science” Nick says.
A dedicated mentor, Nick has trained scientists from 24 countries, supervised 42 PhD students to date, and co-leads a programme with Professor Diane Saunders from the John Innes Centre to support female scientists in wheat research.
The critical role of open science in plant health research was underlined when Nick and Sophien Kamoun contributed their expertise to help mitigate the first wheat blast outbreak in Bangladesh. Based on this experience they co-authored a call to action for open science in plant pathology with collaborator Professor Tofazzal Islam in 2019: Plant health emergencies demand open science.
Nick’s election as an AAAS Fellow is a welcome recognition of the vital role of open science and collaboration alongside research excellence—core principles that define both TSL and AAAS.
This latest class is comprised of 471 scientists, engineers and innovators across 24 AAAS disciplinary Sections. View the 2024 class of Fellows.
“This year’s class of Fellows are the embodiment of scientific excellence and service to our communities,” said Sudip S. Parikh, Ph.D., AAAS chief executive officer and executive publisher of the Science family of journals. “At a time when the future of the scientific enterprise in the U.S. and around the world is uncertain, their work demonstrates the value of sustained investment in science and engineering.”
The new Fellows will receive a certificate and a gold and blue rosette pin (representing science and engineering, respectively) to commemorate their election and will be celebrated at a forum in Washington, D.C. on June 7, 2025. The 2024 Fellows class will also be featured in the AAAS News & Notes section of the journal Science in March 2025.
About the American Association for the Advancement of Science
The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) is the world’s largest general scientific society and publisher of the journal Science, as well as Science Translational Medicine; Science Signaling; a digital, open-access journal, Science Advances; Science Immunology; and Science Robotics. AAAS was founded in 1848 and includes more than 250 affiliated societies and academies of science, serving 10 million individuals. The nonprofit AAAS is open to all and fulfills its mission to “advance science and serve society” through initiatives in science policy, international programs, science education, public engagement and more. For additional information about AAAS, visit www.aaas.org
