Katie Jayne Field | |
|---|---|
| Born | Wiltshire, England |
| Alma mater | Durham University University of Sheffield |
| Scientific career | |
| Institutions | University of Leeds University of Sheffield |
| Thesis | The Functional Significance of Genetic Diversity in Plants : an Environmental Metabolomics Approach (2008) |
Katie Jayne Field is a British bioscientist who is professor of Plant Soil Processes at the University of Sheffield. Her research considers the interactions of plants with fungi and their environment. In 2025, she was named in one of the inaugural cohorts of Royal Society Faraday Discovery Fellows.
Field grew up in Wiltshire, England. [1] Her parents are both gardeners, and she became interested in plants at an early age. [1] She earned her undergraduate degree in plant sciences at Durham University, where she was lectured by botanist Phil Gates. [1] She became interested in a career in plant biology, motivated by understanding how plants interact with organisms and their changing environments. [2] She started researching mycorrhiza. She moved to the University of Sheffield for her doctoral research, where she studied genetic diversity in plants. [1] To understand the functional significance of this genetic diversity she used environmental metabolomics. [3] She remained in Sheffield as a postdoctoral researcher, where was supported by Natural Environment Research Council and worked in the Department of Plant Sciences. [1]
In 2015, Field moved to the University of Leeds, where she was made an Academic Fellow in Plant Soil. [1] She was awarded a Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council fellowship, and was promoted to associate professor in 2017. She returned to the University of Sheffield as a professor of Plant-Soil Processes in 2020. [2]
Field studies the relationships between plants and soil. She is particularly interested in how plants and fungi interact with each other, and how that influences the behaviour of ecosystems. She looks to apply understanding of the symbiosis between plants and fungi to mitigate challenges such as climate change. [2] She has studied arbuscular mycorrhiza and mucoromycotina ‘fine root endophytes’, which form different relationships with their plant hosts, and both play a critical role in life on earth. [4] Field demonstrated that orchids support their seedlings through underground fungal networks, which explains why common spotted-orchids grow in groups around mature plants. [5]
In 2025, Field was named to one of the inaugural cohorts of Royal Society Faraday Discovery Fellows. As part of her fellowship she will explore how fungi are involved with crop resilience, nutrient absorption and carbon sequestration. [4]
Field is an editor for Functional Ecology . [2]