My Science

My main interest for the past decade has been in the regulation of plant defence, from the perception of environmental stress through to the activation of appropriate resistance and tolerance mechanisms. For much of my career, I have taken a reductionist approach to this and other biological problems, trying to understand at the molecular level, how plant signalling processes function. More recently, I have also begun to extend this work to a more holistic view of how molecular genetic systems impact on whole plant phenotypes, including plant interactions with other organisms.

Follow the Research menu for more details about our current research projects.

 

Academic Career

 

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For full details, see my Departmental profile or my University profile.

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Public Engagement

I'm always keen to engage with the public to stimulate more interest in biology and in particular plant science, which is generally assumed to be 'boring' by school kids.

For secondary schools and colleges, I am available to talk about topics like genetic modification and modern 'genomics'-based technologies, but my favourite topic is to look at the chemical warfare plants engage in to defend themselves against their enemies, and how we can exploit this for sustainable agriculture.

For primary schools, I have a range of activities to engage children in plant biology, including plant reproduction and plant movements.

• Schools or other organisations should free to contact me using the details at the bottom opf the page.

 

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