During her visit to Cambridge on Thursday 19 November, the Queen appointed Sir David Baulcombe, already Professor of Botany in the University, the first Regius Professor of Botany. In doing so she created a new Regius Professorship for the first time during her reign, and the first time nationally since 1912.

There are now seven Regius Professorships in Cambridge, in Civil Law, Divinity, Greek, Hebrew, Physics, and Modern History, and Botany.

Of the positions created before this year, the Modern History Professorship is the most recent. It was created by King George I in 1724 -- coincidentally, same year that the University named its first Professor of Botany.

The Queen, who was visiting Cambridge to mark the University's 800th Anniversary, said in the Senate House ceremony where the Professorship was conferred:

"It is a happy coincidence that this year also marks the two hundredth anniversary of the birth of Charles Darwin, whose studies at Christ's College helped to inspire his passion for the natural sciences, which gave rise to major changes in our perception of life on earth.

The University's Department of Plant Sciences still holds all the botanical specimens which Darwin sent back to his mentor, the then Professor of Botany, John Henslow during his voyage in the Beagle."

Sir David, who studied at the Universities of Leeds and Edinburgh, began teaching at Cambridge in September 2007 as a Royal Society Research Professor. He was knighted for "services to plant science" this year in the Queen's Birthday Honours List.