Sarah Gurr holds the Chair in Food Security at Exeter University. She studied at Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine (BSc, ARCS, DIC and PhD (Plant Pathology)), where she was awarded The Huxley Medal for her outstanding record of achievement. She was a post-doctoral Fellow at St Andrews University and thence an independent Royal Society University Research Fellow. She was appointed, as Lecturer, then promoted to Reader and Professor at Oxford University (and Fellow of Somerville College), where she also held a Leverhulme Trust Royal Society Senior Research and a NESTA (Science, Technology and the Arts) Fellowship. She was a curator of the Oxford Botanic Garden for 21 years. Sarah was Head of School (Biosciences, Exeter - 2015 - 2017). She was formerly President of The British Society of Plant Pathology (2011), a member of the Board of Directors of Rothamsted Research Institute (7 years) and sat on Council of the BBSRC (Biotechnology and Biosciences Research Council_ UK (2012 - 2018). She was recently appointed to The International Advisory Board at SLU University, Uppsala (2019 -) and as Advisor to The Scottish Government on Plant Health (RESAS, 2018 -), elected to Board of Trustees of The Rank Foundation (2019 -) and as a member of Plant Heath Scotland (James Hutton Institute). Sarah held the Donder's Chair (Honorary) at Utrecht University (2016 - 2017), was appointed as Visiting Prof at Utrecht (2018 - 2022) and was awarded the President’s prize by the British Mycological Society in 2018. She became a Fellow of the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research (CIFAR) in 2019, Fellow of American Academy of Microbiology (2020), is Senior Research Fellow at Somerville College, Oxford and Fellow of The Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew and The James Hutton Institute, Dundee, and was awarded an Honorary Doctorate by SLU Uppsala (2020).