Janet Sprent

Janet Irene Sprent, FRSE OBE (born 1934) is a British botanical scientist, and emeritus professor at the University of Dundee.

Education and career After graduating from Imperial College London in 1954 with a BSc and ARCS, Sprent worked for a year at Rothamsted Experimental Station before undertaking a PhD at the University of Tasmania. She taught botany for two years at Rochester Grammar School before being awarded a lectureship at Goldsmiths College in 1960.

Awards and recognition In recognition of the contribution she has made to the understanding of nitrogen fixation in legume symbioses, Sprent was awarded a Doctor of Science degree by the University of London in 1988. Then, in 2006, an honorary Doctor of Agriculture from the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences. In 2013, the nitrogen-fixing bacterium Burkholderia sprentiae (later renamed Paraburkholderia sprentiae) was named after her. She was awarded Honorary Membership of the British Ecological Society and, in 2021, the Journal of Ecology commissioned its inaugural Sprent Review, a series of annual, commissioned reviews in ecological science, named in honour of her.