Multidisciplinary science to support innovation in agriculture

Joe is a second year PhD student at Rothamsted Research in the BBSRC Collaborative Training Partnership program, with partners Mondelēz UK R&D Ltd and the University of Reading. His research is in the area of quantitative genetics and plant metabolism, with the goal of reducing asparagine levels in wheat grain to improve wheat quality.

For the last 33 years Martin has combined a career as an academic with farming, importing and consultancy and has, since 2002, run his own specialist economic development consultancy, Collison and Associates Limited. He is a non-executive director of a plant genetics company which markets fruit varieties globally, was a director of an import business for 10 years and partner in a farming and horticultural business for 14 years. He works from the local and regional level to the EU and beyond, now broadly spending a third of his time with industry clients, a third with government and a third with Universities and research centres.

Richard Hopkins

University of Greenwich

Richard Hopkins leads the Agriculture, Health & Environment Department at The Natural Resources Institute of The University of Greenwich. His journey there began with a degree in Agricultural Zoology at The University of Leeds, before migrating north to Edinburgh where he did a PhD on host plant resistance to the cabbage and turnip roots flies. The northward journey continued with a move to work on pollen beetles at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences in Uppsala. One thing led to another and the initial two year contract in Sweden extended to 20 years and it was 2014 before Richard returned to the UK and joined NRI. His work focuses on the behaviour of pest insects and the vectors of human and plant diseases in a wide range of systems, but with some focus on mosquitoes.

Robin is a Principal Consultant for Compliance Services International (CSI) in the UK where he prepares registration dossiers and risk assessments, and provides expert regulatory support for plant protection products and biocides. Prior to that he held various roles within Research and Development at Syngenta. He has a BSc (Hons) in Applied Biology from the University of Bath, and a PhD in Agricultural Ecology from the University of Reading. He is the chair of the Agrisciences committee for the Society of Chemical Industry, Associate Editor for Pest Management Science and an editorial board member for Outlooks on Pest Management. He is also a Chartered Scientist (CSci) and holds the Project Management Professional (PMP) accreditation.

Sokratis is an Associate Professor in Animal Science at the University of Reading and his professional expertise covers several teaching and research roles in animal science. He has several years of underpinning and applied research experience by actively leading, coordinating or participating in multidisciplinary research consortia, in several research topics, including the improvement of the nutritional quality of animal products via husbandry, animal diet and crossbreeding practices; development of solutions for the reduction of livestock greenhouse gas emissions; prediction modelling for livestock greenhouse gas emissions and feed nutritive value; improvement of nutrient and energy use efficiency in ruminants; achievement of the net zero carbon targets; unravel the role of rumen microbiome in ruminant metabolism and product quality; applications of metabolomics on animal and food science; and assessment of the effect of animal products and plant-based alternatives’ consumption on human nutrition.