Research: current
My research interests are diverse and varied - reflecting the messy and complicated world we live in. Nothing exists in a vacuum. From understanding how plants respond to climate change, to investigating how people perceive plants globally - there are always a thousand threads to follow.
2022- Inclusive Leadership Fellow, University of Glasgow
I’m currently working in the New School of Molecular Biosciences at the University of Glasgow. This project aims to create a novel, science-focused framework which supports research leaders to create accessible and innovative laboratory environments through inclusive leadership practices. This involves qual-quant semi-structured research interviews with school members, and creation of a self-guided reflective training resource.
2021-present - Assistant Features Editor, Plant, Cell, Environment
Alongside my research position at the University of Glasgow, I manage social media for the Wiley managed journal, Plant Cell and Environment. I schedule posts, create summaries of cutting-edge plant biology research, and interact with a steadily-increasing audience of followers.
My research career begun in 2015, when I joined Prof Anna Amtmann’s laboratory at the University of Glasgow for my MSc(Res). I continued with Anna for my PhD which I obtained in 2021, with a thesis titled “Identifying epigenetically regulated tissue specific transcription factors in Arabidopsis thaliana”, and a paper, “Cell-type specific transcriptional networks in root xylem adjacent cell layers”
2021-2022- 100 Plant Science Questions, University of Bristol
I joined the 100 Plant Science Questions project as principle investigator and project coordinator. This project was commissioned by the New Phytologist to find the most important questions facing plant science in 2022. The project received over 600 questions from 25+ countries, and assembled an international panel of 20 world-leading scientists to identify the top questions. I performed semi-quantitative comparative linguistic analyses using MATLAB, identifying key themes, words, and sentiment in submitted questions.
2021 - Postdoctoral Associate Researcher, University of Glasgow
I joined Dr Matt Jones’ laboratory at the University of Glasgow for a 6 month ‘micro postdoc’ - investigating how plants sense time and temperature. This project revealed key sensor genes and transcriptional networks which control time/temperature responses in plants.
Research: past
Research: futures
Nothing is static, nothing is binary, and nothing exists in the way we want to perceive it. My future research interests are open to interpretation, interpolation, and interference.
I am currently working with the Grass Roots Remedies co-operative, undertaking a level three accredited ‘Wild Food and Medicine’ course. In 2022 I also undertook a separate level three accredited ‘Plant Use and Identification’ course with The Bushcraft school. These courses have equipped me with practical herbalism and ethnobotanical skills which I hope to use to improve my own personal ecology work while reducing plant disparity awareness in non-expert communities.
My plant-futures aim to encompass plants in community work, ethnobotany, ecological imagination, plant medicines, vegetal thinking, plants as philosophical beings, and far-reaching fungal entities.
Interested in making these imagined plant-futures a reality with me? Drop me a message to entangle art, science, and plants.
