Our People
Professor Rosemary Collier is an applied entomologist and is head of the Food Security MSc at the University of Warwick. She teaches Undergraduate and Masters students, while conducting her own research.
Rosemary's interests lie in the interactions between food production and the natural environment. Focusing on the management of pest insects in horticultural crops with approaches that minimise the impact on other non-target species. This may be through biological or physical approaches, or through host plant resistance, an area where she collaborates with colleagues at Warwick VeGIN (warwick.ac.uk).
Rosemary.Collier@warwick.ac.uk
Professor Richard Napier is a biochemist with a focus on the plant hormone auxin. He is head of the Masters programmes in the Life Sciences Department at the University of Warwick, teaching Undergraduates and Postgraduates. Richard also dedicates his time to policy work, bridging the gap between grower communities and industry, promoting the growth of the British fresh produce sector.
Richard is interested in how and why different members of the receptor family show preferences for different auxins. This is important in agriculture because synthetic auxins are vitally important selective herbicides.
Richard.Napier@warwick.ac.uk
Professor Murray Grant is a biochemist focusing his research on pathogenic and beneficial plant microbe interactions using multidisciplinary research methods.
He is involved with the Elizabeth Creek Trust, where he chairs Food Security and has established the Elizabeth Creek Horticultural Technology Centre which is dedicated towards the genetic improvement of British horticultural crops, patricularly in improving resilience under changing climatic conditions.
M.Grant@warwick.ac.uk
Professor Robert Lillywhite specialises in both impact of agriculture and heathcare on our environment. He looks at the environmental outcomes that arise from current practices and how burdens might be mitigated to reduce human impact on the environment. His work considers resource use, everything from energy, and fertilisers to plastics, and the burdens that their use generates, so greenhouse gas emissions, pollutants and waste. Robert uses environmental accounting techniques (life cycle assessment, carbon footprinting, mass balances) to examine the hotspots, trade-offs and impacts that occur within systems in order to identify reduction strategies.
Robert.Lillywhite@warwick.ac.uk
Professor John Clarkson's research focuses on plant diseases that have a major impact on the supply and quality of fresh produce while also threatening the livelihoods of farmers. In particular, he investigates fungal plant pathogens resident in the soil that can sometimes survive for decades and are therefore a major challenge to control.
John has research projects funded by the government, research councils, and industry looking at fungi such as Fusarium, Sclerotinia, and Pythian spp.
John.Clarkson@warwick.ac.uk
Integrated Pest Management in horticultural crops, including the development of IPM tools and systems to help growers and farmers be more productive, profitable and sustainable. David has a particular interest in biological pest control and biopesticides.
Alongside his research, David co-founded Warwick Agri-Tech, a joint initiative with WMG and the High Value Manufacturing Catapult where he is working to de-risk innovation for agri-technology developers, farmers and growers.Dave.Chandler@warwick.ac.uk
Dr Stephen Parnell is a plant disease epidemiologist and modeller based at both Warwick Crop Centre and the Zeeman Institue for infectious disease epidemiology.
Epidemics of plant destroying pests and diseases are on the rise due to the ever-increasing movement of people and plants around the planet. These pests and diseases can destroy plants in natural environments, such as forests, or in agricultural crops, impacting our ability to produce food.
He develops mathematical and computer models of how these pests and diseases spread through plant populations and use the models to test out strategies to detect and control them.
stephen.parnell@warwick.ac.uk
Jacqueline.stroud@warwick.ac.uk
Dr Graham Teakle is a geneticist focusing his research on crop trait genetics and plant-pest/pathogen interactions with the ultimate goal of delivering to sustainable crop production and reduced crop losses. He focuses on brassicas, notably oilseed rape, lettuce, onions, and carrots.
Graham curates and distributes a number of research plant genetic resource collections, including diversity sets and mapping populations, for oilseed rape, vegetable brassicas, lettuce and onion – see VeGIN website below.
Two key project websites are:
VeGIN- Vegetable Genetic Improvement Network
OREGIN- Oilseed Rape Genetic Improvement Network
Graham.Teakle@warwick.ac.uk
Professor Eric Holub is a geneticist, systems-thinker and a fellow of Warwick Institute of Engagement. He applies his experience to genetic improvement of food crops and public access to affordable food diversity. Recently, he has been selecting Meso-american crops for UK production including common beans (Phaseolus vulgaris), tomatoes, peppers, tomatillos and herbs.
Eric is working to establish new varieties of our favourite pulse, the common bean, for cooking with other home-grown ingredients. Provenance, convenience and versatility are key, especially knowing that all of ingredients in a commercial tin of navy beans in tomato sauce are imported. Thus, National Listing was obtained for three bean varieties: Capulet (looks like an imported navy bean), Godiva (a novel blonde kidney-like bean) and Olivia (an oval black bean).
Eric.Holub@warwick.ac.uk
Dr Lauren Chappell is a plant pathologist and is currently working on the VeGIN project. The interactive network between industry and academia aims to identify novel genetics linked to key improvement traits, such as resistance to pest and disease, for sustainable production of the UK’s four key vegetable crops: carrot, onion, lettuce and vegetable brassicas.
Lauren.Chappell@warwick.ac.uk
Dr Charlotte Allender is a plant geneticist who run the Vegetable Gene Bank, a collection of thousands of samples of seed from a range of vegetable crops such as carrot, onion, lettuce and brassicas like cauliflower and cabbage. Charlotte and her team conserve this seed under long-term storage conditions and make it available as a resource for researchers, breeders and growers to use.
Charlotte is active within national and international networks such as the European Co-operative Programme for Plant Genetic Resources as the Chair of the Umbellifer Crops Working Group, as well as having membership of other crop working groups. I am Deputy Chair of the UK Plant Genetic Resources Group, a group which provides technical and policy advice to Defra
charlotte.allender@warwick.ac.uk
