Prof Paul Thomas

About Prof Paul Thomas

Prof Paul Thomas submitted his PhD on signalling systems in plants, at the University of Sheffield in 2004 and later that year received a small grant from the White Rose Centre for Enterprise (WRCE) to commercialize the technology. WRCE put Prof Thomas forward for the first series of Dragons Den, in which a deal was initially accepted with Simon Woodroffe. However, after filming he decided that the investment wasn’t right for the business, but he continued on to build Mycorrhizal Systems to the global company it is today.

Prof Thomas now works on truffles full-time. His company, Mycorrhizal Systems, produced the UK’s first cultivated truffles and he has the largest network of truffle sites worldwide - including over 30 in the UK. As one of the World’s leading authorities on truffles and truffle cultivation, Prof Thomas regularly presents at international academic conferences and publishes papers on all aspects of truffle biology.