Prof Andrew Leitch

Andrew Leitch

Professor of Plant Genetics
Deputy Head of The Centre for Biodiversity and Sustainability

School of Biological and Behavioural Sciences
Queen Mary University of London
www.qmul.ac.uk/sbbs/staff/andrewleitch.html
Centre for Biodiversity and Sustainability
Centre for Evolutionary and Functional Genomics
ORCID

Research

polyploidy, evolution, interspecific hybridisation, biodiversity finance, genome size, grassland ecology

Interests

I have particular interests in biodiversity and conservation, having worked on many groups of plants, including orchids, bluebells, baobabs and more. I have expertise in community ecology, particularly of grasslands, where I have been studying the impact of polyploidy and genome size on species occurrence. I have generated a database for the British Isles flora, called the ‘BI Flora Explorer’, which combines species characters, traits, distributions and genetics. The aim is to use the database with AI to determine the likely impact of fertilizers and climate change on species distributions. I have also worked for many years on plant polyploidy and interspecific hybridisation, studying a range of systems, including in the plant genera Nicotiana, Prospero, Spartina and Tragopogon.

In recent years I have been championing the 'Sustainable Biodiversity Research Initiative (SUBRI)', which aims to coordinate international commitments to the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework to conserve and enhance biodiversity. In that, I am also part of NERC and Innovate UK’s £7M programme entitled ‘Integrating Biodiversity and Finance for a Nature Positive solution’.

I am now working to re-wild the uplands of Kenya by planting sustainable, harvestable bamboo, which is urgently needed for people, wildlife, livelihoods and water security, as well as contributing towards reduced global carbon emissions.