Professor Alison Smith

Emeritus Professor of Plant Biochemistry at Department of Plant Sciences, University of Cambridge

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Emeritus Professor of Plant Biochemistry, Department of Plant Sciences, University of Cambridge

Alison Smith is Emeritus Professor of Plant Biochemistry at the University of Cambridge in 2023, having been appointed to the academic staff in 1984. Her research interests are focussed around the metabolism of plants, algae and bacteria, in particular of vitamins and cofactors, and how this can be manipulated to produce high-value compounds for nutraceutical and therapeutic purposes. She has pioneered the use of synthetic biology approaches to develop algal biotechnology platforms, and made major contributions to our understanding of the role of vitamins in cellular processes in algae and microbial communities. She established the Algal Innovation Centre sited in the Cambridge Botanic Garden in 2016. This facility allows algal cultivation at pilot scale under natural conditions. She works with international colleagues in Europe, India and Africa to explore opportunities to use algae to enhance nutrition and to develop ways to valorize waste, thus increasing sustainability.

She serves on a number of advisory groups in the algal biotechnology sector, and is a member of the Board for NIAB, an independent agricultural research institute in Cambridge. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Biology, the Marine Biological Association of the UK, and Corpus Christi College Cambridge.

  • 23 April 2014, 6pm

    CPP Lecture: Vince Cable, MP

    The Easter term 2014 CPP lecture will be given by The Rt Hon Dr Vince Cable MP.

  • 24 September 2012, 6pm

    BBC World Service Forum Programme on Education

    CSaP is hosting a discussion programme in front of a live audience, for the BBC World Service Forum programme, which takes place at 6pm on 24 September at Murray Edwards College in Cambridge – the first time the Forum has been hosted at the University.