Guillaume Chomicki

Professor Guillaume Chomicki holds the position of Professor and NERC & ERC-UKRI fellow at Durham University's Department of Biosciences. His research focuses on mutualism evolution, agricultural symbioses, and plant functional morphology. He has held fellowships at institutions including Oxford and Munich, and collaborates internationally with institutions like the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.

Education:

• BSc in Plant Sciences, University of Manchester (2012)
• PhD in Plant Evolutionary Biology, University of Munich (2016)

Research Interests: Dr. Chomicki investigates how mutualisms evolve and break down, the origins of agriculture in ants and humans, and plant structural adaptations. Recent work includes discovering Fijian ant farming systems and sequencing ancient watermelon genomes. His lab employs field experiments, genomics, and phylogenetics.

Key Projects:

• 'BREAKDOWN' ERC-funded project (2023-2028)
• NERC-funded study on mutualistic dependence (2019-2026)
• National Geographic project on ant-plant symbiosis (2017-2021)

Awards: ERC-UKRI fellowship (2023), NERC fellowship, and multiple grants from DFG and EPSRC.

Grants & Advising: Supervised Nathaniel Holmes (MSc). Active in grant initiatives linking symbiosis, agriculture, and evolutionary biology. Collaborates with physicists on plant temperature regulation studies.

Labs & Teams: Leads research groups at Durham and collaborates with Kunming Botanic Gardens and Kew Royal Botanic Gardens on mutualism projects.