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 …

‘Reach and Teach Science in Africa’: Strengthening Research Capacity for Generating Future Foods

This post is written by Dr Ute Voβ and Dr Thomas Alcock. In April 2019, Nottingham Research Fellow Dr Ute Voß and Doctoral Prize Fellow Dr Thomas Alcock received funding through the Future Food Beacon Partnership Fund to travel to Benin, West Africa. In this article, they offer insights into their experiences teaching molecular biology …

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 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 …

Meet the Beacon: Dr Guillermina Mendiondo

Guillermina Mendiondo is a Nottingham Research Fellow in Crop Molecular Genetics, and a member of the Future Food Beacon of Excellence. Guillermina’s research focuses on the impact of environmental stress on plant development, and the role of the N-end rule pathway in targeted proteolysis as a central hub integrating plant responses to abiotic stresses. She …

Meet the Beacon: Dr Sina Fischer

Sina Fischer is a Nottingham Research Fellow in Functional Genomics, and a member of the Future Food Beacon. Sina researches Whole Genome Duplication in Arabidopsis thaliana. Her research seeks to understand the genetics behind traits that appear when the whole genome is duplicated. Sina intends to expand her research into rice and barley while an NRF. …

Future Food Beacon Collaborators: Dr Silvia Busoms

Dr Silvia Busoms is a plant scientist and Future Food Beacon collaborator. She earned her PhD from the University of Aberdeen and the Universitat Autonoma of Barcelona in 2015. From 2016-2018, she was a postdoctoral researcher in Levi Yant’s lab at JIC.  In this interview, Silvia talks to Lexi Earl about her journey to become …

PhenomUK

You have probably heard of plant genomes right? Scientists sequenced the wheat genome back in August of last year. The genome is the genetic structure of a plant and understanding the make-up of the genome gives scientists a map to understanding how the plant is formed and maintained. But have you heard of the phenome? …