As Head of Glasshouse Facilities, Emma manages two teams at the glasshouse complexes at East Malling and at Park Farm, Cambridge.
Her main duties involve the service delivery of various science projects and external trials, including running environmental computer controls for glasshouses and growth rooms. Emma is also the plant health site advisor, chair of the plant health team and assists in setting up and the managing various costing models and systems.
Celine manages and assists research projects in both field and laboratory environment at NIAB at East Malling. She is working to create suitable habitats for beneficial insects and arthropods and looking at how they impact pest control in the crops. These studies also help to outline which flowering resources may be more suitable for each type of crop. Celine has expertise in pest identification, especially key species of thrips that are damaging to soft fruit.
Chandra is based at NIAB East Malling in the Genetics, Genomics and Breeding (GGB) Department.
He received his MPhil and a PhD degree from the University of Delhi and subsequently undertook post-doctoral research at the National Institute of Plant Genome Research in New Delhi India, the University of Milan in Italy, the Agricultural Research Organization (ARO) in Israel and Aberystwyth University before coming to NIAB.
Francesca provides field and laboratory based technical support for research projects and commercial trials, focusing on the control of insect pests in soft fruit, top fruit and hops. She is based with the Pest and Pathogen Ecology team at East Malling in Kent.
Title: SWD Stop Spot - Control of Drosophila suzukii in fruit crops using Sterile Insect Technique (SIT)
Duraction: October 2021 – March 2023
Partners: BigSis, Berry Gardens
Funder: Innovate UK
Adam is a specialist in development of sustainable pest control strategies that minimise environmental impact.
Nitrogen response in wheat and other crops; sustainable agricultural practises; arbuscular mycorrhizae.
Wheat decision: to respond or not respond to available nitrogen; Duration: March 2022-2025; Partners: NIAB (lead); Funding: BBSRC
Graham's research is focused on understanding mechanisms that facilitate plant-environment interactions and increase crop resilience to climate change. These topics are approached using a combination of genetic and physiological tools, with a main focus on stomatal traits. Stomata are key gatekeepers for plant-environment interactions because they control gas-exchange at the leaf surface. They strongly contribute to water-use efficiency, photosynthetic processes, temperature regulation, hydraulic integrity, and organismal plasticity.
Gary provides agronomy advice and technical services to farmers across the eastern region, working closely with NIAB’s Head of Membership Technical Services Andrew Watson and agronomist Stephen Keach on-farm in Norfolk and Suffolk.
Charles undertakes research and development of products, tools, and methods to enable more efficient and environmentally sound crop protection. He is interested in transferring technology and methods from other sectors into agriculture, utilising a range of scientific fields such as semio-chemistry, insect behaviour, image analysis (fluorescence, hyper/multi spectroscopy), remote sensing (aerial and ground), automation and precision agricultural technology to develop novel methods of crop protection.
