Veronica Faith Guwela PhD experience
May 18, 2023
I’d like to share a story of how my love for Agricultural Sciences developed. I was about 12 years old when I accompanied my parents to our family farm to harvest maize. As we were harvesting, I noticed a number of cobs that were affected by maize Smuts. I did not know the name maize …
Completing a PhD: Dr Chris Chagumaira reflects
December 13, 2022
Dr Christopher Chagumaira successfully defended his PhD thesis in September 2022. He was part of the first cohort of PhDs with the UoN-Rothamsted Graduate Centre for International Agriculture. His thesis focused on understanding and communicating uncertainty in spatial predictions of soil micronutrients for various stakeholders (including policymakers, farmers, and managers). He is now a Research …
Can we improve heat tolerance in rice? An interview with Dr Jordan Robson
November 29, 2022
Jordan Robson works on heat tolerance in rice populations. She is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow with the Palaeobenchmarking Resilient Agricultural Systems project. Prior to this she completed her PhD in Prof Zoe Wilson’s lab in Plant Sciences at UoN. Tell me about your work. What is your research about? My research is based on …
Crack(er)ed it! Food Science students win Ecotrophelia UK finals
October 11, 2022
Megan Holden, Katy Tolson, Laura Hill and Kieran Spouge were the winning team from UoN at the UK Ecotrephelia competition finals. Ecotrephelia is a competition for the creation of eco-innovative food products. The team are final year Food Science & Nutrition (Megan, Katy and Laura) and Food Science (Kieran) students. We spoke to them about the competition, …
Improving rice cultivation: An interview with Aishwarya Shankhapal
June 17, 2022
Aishwarya Shankhapal is a PhD candidate with the Graduate Centre for International Agriculture. Her project is titled ‘Understanding mesocotyl elongation in rice’ and her supervisors are Prof Peter Eastmond (Rothamsted), Dr Smita Kurup (Rothamsted), Prof Malcolm Bennett (UoN) and Dr Leah Band (UoN). Why did you decide to do a PhD? What were you doing …
Improving wheat with wild relatives: An interview with Jack Walker
Jack Walker is a PhD candidate with the UoN-Rothamsted Graduate Centre for International Agriculture. Their project explores the use of wild relatives to improve salt tolerance in wheat Their supervisors are Dr Surbhi Grewal, Professor Julie King and Dr Jonathon Atkinson. Prior to starting a PhD, Jack was a research technician at the University of …
Understanding yield gaps: An interview with Chawezi Miti
June 16, 2022
Chawezi Miti is a PhD candidate with the UoN-Rothamsted Graduate Centre for International Agriculture. Their project is titled: Boundary line methodology for yield gap analysis of farm systems, and their supervisors are Prof. Murray Lark (University of Nottingham), Dr. Alice Milne (Rothamsted research), and Prof. Ken Giller (Wageningen University). Prior to starting a PhD, Chawezi …
Understanding plant-microbiota interactions: An interview with Katerina Velchova.
June 15, 2022
Katerina Velchova is a PhD candidate in the Graduate Centre for International Agriculture. Their research project is titled: Microbiome-root-shoot axis: A microbial approach for heavy metalloids toxicity in plant systems, and they are supervised by Dr Gabriel Castrillo. Why did you decide to do a PhD? What were you doing before? Previously I completed an …
Reducing disease in oilseed rape: An interview with Lisa Humbert
June 14, 2022
Lisa Humbert is a PhD candidate with the Graduate Centre for International Agriculture, a joint partnership between the University of Nottingham’s Future Food Beacon and Rothamsted Research. Lisa’s project is titled “Fungal sex factors as novel antifungal compounds for control of plant disease.” They are supervised by Dr David Withall (RRes), Prof Paul Dyer (UoN) …
Take control of your career #4: Writing the narrative of your work
May 6, 2022
This post is written by Dr Peter Noy, Associate Director of Research for the Future Food Beacon. Over the last few months I have been giving talks on how to navigate your career to achieve research independence. The single theme that runs throughout these talks is developing a clear narrative for your career story. To …
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