Plants (ISSN: 2223-7747) is pleased to announce the appointment of Dr. David Collings as Section Editor-in-Chief (SEiC) of the “Plant Development and Morphogenesis” Section. 

Dr. David Collings completed his PhD at the Australian National University in 1994. He conducted postdoctoral research at Wageningen University (The Netherlands), Osaka University (Japan), North Carolina State University and Purdue University (USA). From 2002 to 2007, he was an ARC Research Fellow within the Research School of Biological Sciences at the Australian National University, and from 2008 to 2016 was a member of the School of Biological Sciences at the University of Canterbury (Christchurch, New Zealand). Between 2016 and 2020, he was based at the University of Newcastle, and from 2023 was an Honorary Fellow in the Research School of Biology at the Australian National University in Canberra. In 2026, he rejoined the University of Canterbury. While his research initially focused on the structures and functions of the plant cytoskeleton and, in particular, interactions between microtubules and actin microfilaments, from about 2005 his research moved towards an understanding of the cell wall. His research group’s main focus is currently the development and function of phi thickenings, unusual secondary cell wall bands that develop in the cortex of plant roots. 

The following is an interview with Dr. David Collings: 

1. Could you briefly reflect on the key opportunities that led you to pursue an academic career? Which experience has had the most profound impact on you?

Becoming a plant biologist surprised me: I had not studied biology as a high school student, and so becoming a biologist was neither planned nor even considered when I began as an undergraduate student at the University of Sydney in the 1980s. In fact, I only selected biology as my final first year course to fill a gap in my timetable, and through that year, it was probably my weakest subject. As an undergraduate student in plant biology, and then subsequently as a PhD student, I was fortunate to have excellent teachers and role models, and I look back on their encouragement and training with gratitude. And then as a postdoc, I was able to travel the world and work in different instiutions in multiple countries, with a year spent in Osaka in Japan in Professor Shibaoka’s group as a JSPS postdoctoral fellow being particularly valuable. It was the ability of these mentors to foster my interest in the plant world that led me to follow an academic career. In the end, I guess that the thing that attracted me most to plant biology was the chance to solve problems, and I still get great satisfaction when ideas and concepts finally click into place. 

2. Which development directions or technological breakthroughs in your field are you most optimistic about in the next 3–5 years?

‘Optimistic’ is the interesting word in this question, and I guess I remain somewhat ambivalent about how technology is changing our studies of plant growth and development. Certainly, bioinformatics and single cell technologies have been a boon for understanding plant growth and development, but too often I see publications in which this type of bioinformatic data has not been accompanied by good science validating the bioinformatics data. Good science does not always need the latest technology, and there is no substitute (yet) for good thinking. It will, however, be fascinating to see how the AI revolution changes how we conduct science. But if I had to name one technology whose development over the next few years will be critical for understanding plant development and morphogenesis, it is the prospect of machine learning being used to process and quantify complex imaging data. 

3. What advice would you give to young scholars and early-career researchers regarding topic selection, perseverance, and mindset?

These are tough times to be a scientist in many parts of the world, with budget cuts and employment pressures continuing to mount. For students and early career researchers, three things stand out to me. These ideas are not new: they are the same things I was told when I started on this road but they remain true today. 
First, remain inquisitive. Keep talking to and asking questions of your colleagues, and keep reading widely, not just in your own area of specialisation. But above all, keep thinking new ideas. I tell my students that even if 95% of my ideas turn out to be wrong, as long as I have a hundred ideas, some are bound to be good! Second, don’t be a ‘one trick pony’. Make sure you master different techniques to make yourself more employable. If you are studying bioinformatics, learn some cell and developmental biology as well. But if you are an imager, make sure that you learn some of the cool molecular techniques that have been developed. And third, publish your work. Our research is typically paid for by our institutions and grants, and we have the responsibility to these funding bodies to make sure that our research is published. But getting your research into a publishable form takes time and effort, and you cannot rely on your supervisors getting the work completed, so help them by finishing your experiments, and writing up everything that you can! 

4. What do you think of the development status and trends of open access publishing?

As scientists, we have a responsibility to publish our work, and if the public pays for our research, then the public has a right to read what we have done. A move to open access publications not only benefits researchers from institutions who cannot access journals hidden behind paywalls, it also means that the public can readily access the research if the wish to. And this is good. The publishing system, however, remains under pressure with the volume of material that is being published, and the speed with which manuscripts to be turned around. As part of the scientific community, we need to ensure that quality of published science is retained through the peer review system. 

5. How do you envision the future of the Section “Plant Development and Morphogenesis”?

In recent decades, research has focused intensely on model species such as Arabidopsis and crop species such as wheat, rice, maize and the legumes. There are, however, more than several hundred thousand species of land plants and many of these species show very interesting aspects in their growth and development. I hope to foster a diversity of research topics in the “Plant Development and Morphogenesis” Section from non-model and non-crop species. 

We warmly welcome Dr. David Collings as the Section Editor-in-Chief of “Plant Development and Morphogenesis”, and we look forward to him leading Plants to achieve many more milestones.