Congratulations to New Phytologist Foundation prize winners: part one

We are delighted to congratulate the winners of prizes that the New Phytologist Foundation supported between spring and autumn this year!

Here is part one of our two-part round-up.

The New Phytologist Foundation supported the Plants, Photosynthesis and Soil Symposium, which took place at the University of Sheffield, UK, on 23^rd April 2025, by funding three poster prizes for early career researchers:

1^st prize: Issi Steeley
Enhanced weathering for carbon capture in Brazilian cacao

2^nd prize: Nathanael Tan
Unravelling the role of the cell wall in stomatal mechanics: why guard cells aren’t just tubes

3^rd prize: Nitkamon Iamprasertkun
Physiological trade-off in Arabidopsis thaliana under drought conditions

The New Phytologist Foundation supported the 11^th International Congress on Education in Botanic Gardens, which took place in Pocheon, South Korea between 9^th and 13^th June 2025, by funding two poster prizes for early career researchers:

1^st prize: Seung-Su Euo, Korea National Arboretum
Citizen science-based study of pollinating insects in Gwangneung Forest
Runners-up: Lucie Brzcova and Eva Vitova, Prague Botanical Garden
Valuable Botanic Garden Concept: 5 key principles

Two poster prize winners stand on the stage with the conference hosts, holding their certificates. Text in the background reads "Awards ceremony: Two outstanding posters."

The New Phytologist Foundation funded two prizes for oral presentations and three poster prizes at the Ecology of Soil Microorganisms 6 conference, which took place in Helsinki, Finland, between 15^th and 19^th June 2025.

Presentation prizes

Elsa Hilaire, INRAE
Meta-omics reveal microbial guild succession and functions during fungal necromass decomposition in forest soil
Elias Barmettler, University of Zurich / Agroscope
Copper and synthetic pesticides are major drivers of bacterial and fungal communities in vineyard soils

Five prize winners stand with their certificates between Bjorn Lindahl and Maarja Opik.

Poster prizes

Karolina Jörgensen, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
A carbon utilization and nitrogen acquisition trait spectrum for ectomycorrhizal fungi
Luise Brandt, University of Hohenheim
Reciprocal transport of carbon and nitrogen between plants and microbes in the grassland hyphosphere
Julian Ruggaber, Leibniz Centre for Agricultural Landscape Research
Rhizosphere metatranscriptomics of microbiome functions in carbon turnover assessed by a novel approach

The New Phytologist Foundation funded two oral presentation prizes and three poster presentation prizes at the International Oomycete Genetics Network Meeting, a satellite meeting which took place in Cologne, Germany on 12^th July 2025, before the main IS-MPMI conference.

Joint first oral presentation prize

Maria Kostarelli, UMR INRAE CNRS Université Côte d'Azur - Sophia Antipolis, France
Max Pluis, UMR INRAE CNRS Université Côte d'Azur - Sophia Antipolis, France

Poster prizes

1^st prize: Callum Scott, University of Aberdeen, UK
2^nd prize: Pelin Yuksel, The Genome Center, University of California, Davis, CA, USA
3^rd prize: Susanna Anbu, Utrecht University, the Netherlands