David Charles Baulcombe

David Charles Baulcombe (born 1952) is a plant scientist and geneticist with interests in genetic regulation, genetic disease resistance and gene silencing. With Andrew Hamilton he discovered the small interfering RNA that is the specificity determinant in RNA-mediated gene silencing and, with other members of his research group, he helped unravel the importance of small interfering RNA in defense against viruses and in epigenetics.

Baulcombe's career as an independent scientist started at the Plant Breeding Institute in Cambridge and continued between 1988 and 2007 at the Sainsbury Laboratory in Norwich. In March 2007, it was announced that Baulcombe would be the next Professor of Botany at Cambridge University, taking up his post in September 2007. He was elected to the Royal Society in 2001 and the United States National Academy of Sciences in 2005. His honours and awards include the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences's M. W. Beijerinck Virology Prize (2004) and the Royal Society's Royal Medal (2006).

As of 2007, Baulcombe is a senior editor for The Embo Journal.