Duncan Drummond Cameron is a British microbiologist and Professor of Environmental Sustainability at the

University of Manchester , mottoeng = Knowledge, Wisdom, Humanity , established = 2004 – University of Manchester Predecessor institutions: 1956 – UMIST (as university college; university 1994) 1904 – Victoria University of Manchester 1880 – Victoria Univer ...

. His research considers

multiomics Multiomics, multi-omics, integrative omics, "panomics" or "pan-omics" is a biological analysis approach in which the data sets are multiple "omes", such as the genome, proteome, transcriptome, epigenome, metabolome, and microbiome (i.e., a meta ...

approaches to understand the interactions between soil microbes and plant nutrition. Alongside his research, Cameron works in science policy, and was involved with the

2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference The 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference, COP 21 or CMP 11 was held in Paris, France, from 30 November to 12 December 2015. It was the 21st yearly session of the Conference of the Parties (COP) to the 1992 United Nations Framework Conve ...

Early life and education

Cameron started his academic career at the

University of Sheffield , mottoeng = To discover the causes of things , established = – University of SheffieldPredecessor institutions: – Sheffield Medical School – Firth College – Sheffield Technical School – University College of Sheffield , type = Pu ...

, where he studied animal and plant biology. He was a doctoral student at the

University of Aberdeen The University of Aberdeen ( sco, University o' 'Aiberdeen; abbreviated as ''Aberd.'' in List of post-nominal letters (United Kingdom), post-nominals; gd, Oilthigh Obar Dheathain) is a public university, public research university in Aberdeen, Sc ...

, where he researched the effect of '' Rhinanthus minor'' on the structure of the environments it inhabits. Over the course of one growing season, he found that '' Rhinanthus minor'' suppresses the growth of

grasses Poaceae () or Gramineae () is a large and nearly ubiquitous family of monocotyledonous flowering plants commonly known as grasses. It includes the cereal grasses, bamboos and the grasses of natural grassland and species cultivated in lawns and ...

and

legumes A legume () is a plant in the family Fabaceae (or Leguminosae), or the fruit or seed of such a plant. When used as a dry grain, the seed is also called a pulse. Legumes are grown agriculturally, primarily for human consumption, for livestock fo ...

whilst promoting the growth of

forbs A forb or phorb is an herbaceous flowering plant that is not a graminoid (grass, sedge, or rush). The term is used in biology and in vegetation ecology, especially in relation to grasslands and understory. Typically these are dicots without woo ...

. Cameron returned to the

as a postdoctoral researcher, before being appointed a Royal Society University Research Fellowship. He worked as a research fellow at the

University of Würzburg The Julius Maximilian University of Würzburg (also referred to as the University of Würzburg, in German ''Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg'') is a public research university in Würzburg, Germany. The University of Würzburg is one of ...

. In 2023, Cameron and his research group moved to the

Manchester Institute of Biotechnology The Manchester Institute of Biotechnology, formerly the Manchester Interdisciplinary Biocentre (MIB) is a research institute of the University of Manchester, England. Role The centre has been designed to enable academic communities to explore ...

at the

Research and career

Cameron started his independent academic career at the

, investigating agricultural practise and the movement of nutrients in symbiotic organisms. His research efforts look to inform sustainable approaches to feed growing populations. He makes use of both molecular biology and biochemistry to understand the communication of microbes, and how they exchange resources in symbioses. He leads the UK Research and Innovation H3 (healthy soil, healthy food, healthy people) consortium, a scheme which looks to transform the UK

food system The term food system describes the interconnected systems and processes that influence nutrition Nutrition is the biochemical and physiological process by which an organism uses food to support its life. It provides organisms with nutrients ...

. In 2013 Cameron was Chair of the

Royal Society The Royal Society, formally The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, is a learned society and the United Kingdom's national academy of sciences. The society fulfils a number of roles: promoting science and its benefits, re ...

Frontiers of Science meeting. He was the

University of California, Riverside The University of California, Riverside (UCR or UC Riverside) is a public land-grant research university in Riverside, California. It is one of the ten campuses of the University of California system. The main campus sits on in a suburban distr ...

Invited Lecturer in 2021.

Selected publications

* * * Cameron writes for the website The Conversation.

Personal life

Cameron is gay, and works to improve the visibility of

LGBT ' is an initialism that stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender. In use since the 1990s, the initialism, as well as some of its common variants, functions as an umbrella term for sexuality and gender identity. The LGBT term is a ...

people.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cameron, Duncan Drummond British microbiologists Academics of the University of Sheffield Alumni of the University of Sheffield Alumni of the University of Aberdeen Royal Society University Research Fellows Year of birth missing (living people) Living people