Horticultural Crop Research (East Malling)

Research interests

Flora’s research focuses on aspects of root and soil biology in horticultural crop production. Her particular areas of interest include soil health and carbon sequestration, and root-rhizosphere interactions.

Research interests

With a BA (Hons) in business management and a keen interest in horticulture, Emma is part of the glasshouse and ornamental specialist team delivering trials and R&D services for mainly commercial customers of arable, fruit and ornamental and protected crops in the glasshouses.

Emma provides the team with business development, contract management, customer liaison, coordination and technical services for activities including variety trials and variety characterisation, product evaluation trials, nutrition and growing system studies.

Responsible for the day-to-day running, maintenance, commercial management, and supervision of activities at the WET Centre at East Malling.

Research interests

Michelle specialises in the minimisation of pesticide use in fruit horticulture, improving pollination in fruit crops and incorporating modern fruit growing practices with Integrated Pest Management. The former includes research on improving pest monitoring by developing semiochemical manipulation of insects, optimising the use of biological control agents and enhancing and fostering local landscape ecology to provide the ecosystem service of pest control.

Research interests

Research interests

Timo is working as a principal research scientist at the Genetics, Genomics & Breeding department at East Malling and as an associate professor at the Department of Agricultural Sciences, University of Helsinki. His research focuses on the molecular control of reproductive development and environmental adaptation in strawberries using woodland strawberry as a model. His group applies population, quantitative and functional genomic methods to identify key genes and generates transgenic lines to validate gene functions.

Former Head of Science at NIAB’s horticultural centre at East Malling in Kent, Xiangming is responsible for developing and delivering the strategy for research activities across the whole of NIAB. This is in addition to his role in co-ordinating research activities at East Malling.

Eleftheria Stavridou is a dedicated researcher focused on enhancing abiotic stress tolerance and nutrient use efficiency in horticultural crops through precision agriculture technologies, nutrient modelling, and integrated crop management strategies. Her research aims to deepen our understanding of mineral nutrient dynamics within agriculture and food systems, with the goal of improving sustainability and productivity.

Research interests