Jane Langdale aims to understand how developmental mechanisms evolved in plants, with a focus on the evolution and development of leaves. She has a particular interest in discovering the genetic mechanisms that pattern the distinctive leaf anatomy found in plants carrying out highly efficient C4 photosynthesis. This research is conducted with the long-term aim of engineering C4 leaf anatomy into less efficient crops.

Jane graduated from the University of Bath with a BSc in Applied Biology and then went on to do a PhD in Human Genetics at the University of London. Postdoctoral research in plant developmental genetics at Yale University was followed by SERC and then Royal Society Research Fellowships at the University of Oxford. In 1994, she was appointed University Lecturer in the Department of Plant Sciences at Oxford and a Tutorial Fellow of The Queen’s College. Jane was Head of Department of Plant Sciences from 2007–2012 and Associate Head of the Mathematical, Physical and Life Sciences Division from 2008–2013. She has advised the Gatsby Charitable Foundation’s Plant Science Programme since 1997, was elected a Member of EMBO in 2007 and was awarded a CBE for services to plant sciences in 2018.