Breeding rice for higher temperatures: an interview with Tanvir Ahammed

Md Tanvir Ahammed is a UoN Rothamsted Research PhD studentship recipient. Their project is titled ‘Exploring genetic diversity in rice for better nitrogen recycling and reduced ammonia emission under stress’ and they are supervised by Dr Sigrid Heuer (RRes), Dr Erik Murchie (UoN), and Dr Kazuki Saito (AfricaRice).   Why did you decide to do …

The importance of zinc in cereal crops: An interview with Veronica Guwela

Veronica Guwela is a UoN-Rothamsted PhD student recipient. Their project is titled: ‘High zinc wheat for sub-Saharan Africa’ and they are supervised by Prof Julie King (UoN), Dr Malcolm Hawkesford (RRes), Prof Martin Broadley (UoN) and Prof Moses Maliro (LUANAR) . Why did you decide to do a PhD? What were you doing before? I decided …

Giving voice to farmers and producers: An interview with Associate Prof Anne Touboulic

Associate Prof Anne Touboulic researches sustainable supply chains from a social sciences perspective. She is based in the Business School and is a member of the Future Food Beacon leadership team. Dr Touboulic works often with rural food producers to co-create research to develop better food systems. In this interview, she talks with Lexi Earl about …

Using narratives to understanding eating disorders: an interview with Associate Professor Heike Bartel

Associate Professor Heike Bartel is a scholar in German Literature, based in the School of Cultures, Languages and Area Studies at the University of Nottingham. Dr Bartel’s work explores the narratives of food, health and illness. She is a member of the Future Food Beacon Leadership team. In this interview, Dr Bartel talks to Lexi Earl …

Meet the Beacon: Dr Christopher Moore

Dr Chris Moore is a geneticist and the Future Food Beacon technologist. He is based in Deep Seq, where he performs DNA sequencing and provides genomics support for Future Food researchers. Chris helps researchers to plan their sequencing projects, carries out the lab work and transfers data to bioinformaticians, such as Dr Michael Wilson, for …

Meet the Beacon: Prof David Salt

Professor David E. Salt is the Director of the University of Nottingham’s multimillion pound Future Food Beacon of Excellence. Prof Salt left the UK after his PhD in 1990 to work as an academic in the US where he became a Full Professor at Purdue University in 2005, and where, from 2004 – 2007, he was the …

Meet the Beacon: Dr Jonathan Atkinson

Jon Atkinson is a Senior Research Fellow and Technologist in Phenomics for the Future Food Beacon. As well as conducting his own research, his role is designed to help other researchers do their research by developing phenotyping equipment and kit. He will be working in the dedicated makerspace that has been developed within the Future Food …

Meet the Beacon: Dr Michael Wilson

Michael Wilson is a Senior Research Fellow and Technologist in Bioinformatics for the Future Food Beacon. Michael handles sequencing data, data derived from the DeepSeq facility, and conducts integrative analysis. His role is to support biologists in handling the large amount of data to be produced. Michael is also responsible for the digital requirements of …

Meet the Beacon: Dr Gabriel Castrillo

Gabriel Castrillo is a Nottingham Research Fellow in Plant Microbiome, and a member of the Future Food Beacon of Excellence. Gabriel’s research is focused on understanding how plants and microbes interact, in the context of nutrition. He examines how microbes help plants cope with nutritional deficiencies, and how the plant impacts the structure of the …

Meet the Beacon: Dr Michael Pound

Michael Pound is a Nottingham Research Fellow in Computer Vision and member of the Future Food Beacon of Excellence. Mike is a computer scientist whose research focuses on the development of novel computer vision techniques. Within the Beacon, he is working with bioscientists to apply these computer vision techniques to plant phenotyping, providing accurate measurement of …