Dr. Heather Whitney has been awarded the 2012 President's Medal in Plant Sciences of the Society for Experimental Biology, for her ground-breaking research on plant iridescence. The SEB is the leading international society promoting experimental research in biology and the President's Medals are awarded annually to young scientists, normally within 10 years of obtaining their PhD, of outstanding merit. She will be presented the medal by the Society's President at the Annual Meeting in Salzburg in June 2012. This caps an amazing 12 months for Heather, starting a 1.1 million Euro European Research Council grant, being awarded a £220 grant from the Leverhulme Trust, and winning one of the 2011 l'Oreal-UNESCO awards for outstanding women in science.

Incredibly, there are now five SEB medal winners among the current plant scientists at the School of Biological Sciences. Heather's award follows on closely from the success of Dr. Kerry Franklin, the 2010 winner, and previous recipients include Professors Claire Grierson, Gary Foster and Alistair Hetherington.