Ben Field

Ben Field serves as Deputy Team Leader and CNRS Research Director at the Aix-Marseille Institute of Biosciences and Biotechnologies (BIAM), part of the CEA Cadarache research center. He leads research in the LGBP (Laboratory of Plant Genetics and Biochemistry) team focusing on plant responses to environmental changes.

Dr. Field's research interests center around understanding how chloroplasts participate in the acclimation of plants and algae to environmental stresses such as light variations, drought, and nutrient starvation. His work specifically investigates guanosine tetraphosphate (ppGpp) signaling in photosynthesis, with the goal of identifying factors that limit the productivity and resistance of photosynthetic organisms. This research has significant implications for improving crop resilience and productivity in changing environmental conditions.

His recent publications highlight the role of ppGpp in regulating photosynthesis during nitrogen limitation in Arabidopsis and its influence on protein protection and growth in the diatom Phaeodactylum tricornutum. These studies demonstrate the conserved role of ppGpp signaling across diverse photosynthetic organisms.

Dr. Field has held his position as CNRS Researcher at LGBP since 2009, following a FEBS post-doctoral fellowship at the same institution from 2008-2009. Prior to that, he completed post-doctoral work at the Sainsbury Lab/John Innes Centre in the UK, where he also earned his PhD.

He maintains active professional profiles through HAL, ORCID, and Google Scholar, and can be followed on Twitter for updates on his research.