
Prof Sue Hartley OBE
Prof Sue Hartley OBE joined the University of Sheffield in January 2020 as Vice-President for Research. In this role, she leads on the University’s research activity, including ensuring research quality and impact, supporting the interdisciplinary cross-faculty Flagship Research Institutes, driving grant activity and research income, and ensuring research integrity. Sue is also the institutional lead for the University’s sustainability agenda.
Before coming to Sheffield, Sue was Director of the York Environmental Sustainability Institute, a pioneering interdisciplinary research partnership generating solutions to global environmental challenges, at the University of York. She was also the University of York's Research Champion for Environmental Sustainability and Resilience, driving a range of research programmes with colleagues from multiple disciplines and external partners.
Sue has served as a trustee of Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, and a board member of Natural England, the UK government’s statutory adviser for the natural environment in England.
Her research interests focus on understanding the interactions between organisms exploiting crops, both above-ground and in the soil, and how those interactions are mediated by plant defences, particularly silicon. A better understanding of these ecosystem processes can improve the environmental sustainability of agriculture, its resilience to climate change, and agri-environmental policy.