Dr Andrew Beacham

Supervisor Details

Contact Details

Dr Andrew Beacham

Agriculture and Environment, Harper Adams University

Scientific Background

Research Interests

Whole plant abiotic stress physiology of vegetable crops including Brassica, lettuce, carrot, onion and culinary herbs
Development of plant resources for breeding programmes
Vertical Farming systems
DNA based detection of plant pathogens including soil-borne fungal pathogens of Brassicas

Involved with these other projects

Climate change represents one of the greatest threats to the future of global agriculture and so to human nutrition. Together with increased weather variability, this is leading to both long- and short-term variation in crop growing conditions, which can cause a number of abiotic (environmental) crop stresses such as drought and waterlogging. Such stresses can be particular severe for crops during the transplantation stage when they are planted out in the field as seedlings.

I am exploring whole plant stress physiology in vegetable Brassicas, lettuce, carrot and onion, developing and using stress protocols in order to analyse the response of crop collections such as Diversity Fixed Foundation Sets (DFFSs) and Recombinant Inbred Line (RIL) mapping populations to temperature, salinity, drought, waterlogging and nutrient availability fluctuations. This will allow the identification of stress-resilient lines and resilience-associated Quantitative Trait Loci (QTLs) in order to provide useful genetic material for crop breeding programmes.

Supervision Style

In three words or phrases: Supportive, detail-oriented, outcome-oriented.

Provision of Training

Your training will comprise a mixture of myself or colleagues taking responsibility for some aspects of your technical training at first, leading to more independence later, with other aspects where you will be encouraged to independently figure out appropriate methods and changes to methodology to build your experimental development and problem-solving skills.

Progression Monitoring and Management

We will work together to define goals for the short and long term and will keep up to date with regular meetings e.g. every one-two weeks to monitor progress and help with problem-solving, but I will also be available to discuss issues and provide guidance in between. Meetings with larger groups of colleagues will also be arranged and are very beneficial for fixing problems and identifying areas where helps is needed and can be provided.

I aim to provide a balance between providing support, instruction and guidance where necessary but also to allow you enough space to develop your own ideas and permit your establishment as an independent researcher.

Communication

Communication within the team generally occurs within normal working hours and I will not expect you to reply to messages outside of these times, similarly I may not reply outside of these times. The team has a WhatsApp group chat with which we can communicate during the week. You are free to contact outside of these times but a reply may not be obtained straightaway.

I am happy to discuss any issues that are impacting your ability to fulfil your potential or my/our expectations and would encourage you to raise any issues that may be impacting your work with the most appropriate person – we aim to establish a supportive environment where colleagues can help each other where needed. This could be myself, other supervisors, other postgraduate research students and postdocs, welfare support and staff such as Dr Martin Hare, Director of Postgraduate Research.

PhD Students can expect scheduled meetings with me:

In a group meeting

At least once per fortnight

In year 1 of PhD study

At least once per week

In year 2 of PhD study

At least once per fortnight

In year 3 of PhD study

At least once per fortnight

The meetings will be a mixture of face to face, via video chat or telephone and I am usually contactable for a response (if required) on every working day, where other commitments such as teaching allow.

Working Pattern

The timing of work in my lab is predominantly flexible, and (other than attending pre-arranged meetings), I expect students to manage their own time (within the opening hours/restrictions set by the University).

Notice Period for Feedback

I need at least 2 week’s notice to provide feedback on written work of up to 5000 words.

Project Details

Dr Andrew Beacham is supervising no projects this year.