Schooling PhD students in plant development

Plant development is a dynamic field of research that is inherently multi-scale andmulti-disciplinary. For these reasons, it has become increasingly important for scientists to communicate and collaborate on research projects across subject and geographical boundaries. The PhD School in Plant Development (www.plant-deve lopment.org) has been running successfully for the past 12 years to immerse early career scientists in exciting research at the very forefront of plant developmental biology, and to train them in the skills needed to communicate their science with peers and international leaders in the field. This year’s topics ranged from membrane signaling, cell wall dynamics, organ growth and patterning; through to the evolution of plant form and function (Fig. 1). These topics reflect multiple scales of investigation using approaches from multiple disciplines including structural biology, live-cell imaging, genetics, computational modeling and fluid dynamics. Here, we highlight some of the excellent science that inspired the recent cohort of students in plant development.