Duncan D. Cameron

Duncan Drummond Cameron is a British microbiologist and Professor of Environmental Sustainability at the University of Manchester. His research considers multiomics approaches to understand the interactions between soil microbes and plant nutrition. Alongside his research, Cameron works in science policy, and was involved with the 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference.

Early life and education
Cameron started his academic career at the University of Sheffield, where he studied animal and plant biology. He was a doctoral student at the University of Aberdeen, where he researched the effect of Rhinanthus minor on the structure of the environments it inhabits. Over the course of one growing season, he found that Rhinanthus minor suppresses the growth of grasses and legumes whilst promoting the growth of forbs. Cameron returned to the University of Sheffield as a postdoctoral researcher, before being appointed a Royal Society University Research Fellowship. He worked as a research fellow at the University of Würzburg. In 2023, Cameron and his research group moved to the Manchester Institute of Biotechnology at the University of Manchester.

Research and career
Cameron started his independent academic career at the University of Sheffield, investigating agricultural practise and the movement of nutrients in symbiotic organisms. His research efforts look to inform sustainable approaches to feed growing populations. He makes use of both molecular biology and biochemistry to understand the communication of microbes, and how they exchange resources in symbioses. He leads the UK Research and Innovation H3 (healthy soil, healthy food, healthy people) consortium, a scheme which looks to transform the UK food system.

In 2013 Cameron was Chair of the Royal Society Frontiers of Science meeting. He was the University of California, Riverside Invited Lecturer in 2021.

Selected publications


Cameron writes for the website The Conversation.

Personal life
Cameron is gay, and works to improve the visibility of LGBT people.