David Baulcombe joined Cambridge University in 2007 as Royal Society Research Professor, Regius Professor of Botany (now Emeritus) and Fellow (now Emeritus) of Trinity College. He had worked previously at the Plant Breeding Institute and the Sainsbury Laboratory in Norwich. In the very distant past he received a BSc from Leeds and a PhD from Edinburgh. Research interests of David Baulcombe involve plants and genetics with particular interests in disease resistance and the application of science to develop sustainable agriculture. Contributions of the Baulcombe research group include the discovery of small RNA that are the key components of a process that reduces or silences gene expression. They have also identified proteins required for RNA silencing. Much of their work involved plant viruses and they showed how RNA silencing protects plants against virus disease. Baulcombe group members have also helped elucidate other protein-based disease resistance mechanisms. Their work has also contributed to the understanding of epigenetics in plants. Although David has worked primarily on plants, the work of this group has influenced biology more generally and he has received many awards including the 2006 Royal Medal of the Royal Society, the 2008 Lasker Award for basic biomedical sciences, the Wolf Prize for Agriculture in 2010 and the 2012 Balzan Prize for epigenetics. David is a Fellow of the Royal Society, International Member of the US National Academy of Sciences and lifetime member of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences. He was knighted in June 2009.