Staff
Kate Waite
Kate is responsible for coordinating agronomic (fungicide, insecticide, nutrition and PGR) trials focusing on cereals, oilseed rape and pulses. She is also responsible for the contract management of variety oilseed rape trials.
Dr Bart Fraaije
Bart's role at NIAB includes research into new crop protection tools, fungicide resistance monitoring and developing optimal disease control programmes for fungal pathogens on cereals and other crops.
Dr Aoife O' Driscoll
Responsibilities
A molecular plant pathologist by training, Aoife has broad ranging experience in crop protection research, agronomy and knowledge transfer in the arable and horticulture crop sectors. Her PhD conducted with Teagasc investigated novel sources of resistance to Septoria tritici in wheat and the model grass species Brachypodium distachyon. She has since held roles in agrochemical regulatory science and as a field vegetable pathologist with ADAS, achieving her BASIS Certificate in Commercial Horticulture in 2018.
Colin Peters
Responsibilities
Colin has previously worked as a distributor agronomist and a farm manager for a large farm management organisation before moving on to work as Head of Farms for BBSRC, based at Rothamsted Research.
As NIAB's break crop specialist he provides specialist technical and scientific knowledge on the evaluation, selection and management of crop varieties, focusing on break crops including oilseed rape, linseed, pulses, sugar beet and other minor crops. As part of the role he helps coordinate the break crop trials programmes, working with staff across NIAB.
Professor Ji Zhou
Prof Ji Zhou leads NIAB’s Data Sciences Department, since his appointment in early 2020. His department focuses on developing multi-scale indoor and in-field plant phenotyping and AI-driven phenotypic analysis using satellite, Agri-Drones, LiDAR, self-developed low-cost remote sensing, Videometer and Opera HCS system.
Dr Anyela Camargo Rodriguez
Research interests
I am computational biologist, I use mathematical and statistical models to understand and predict the development of complex biological processes. I used this modelling approach to specifically:
Dr Pauline Thomelin
Research interests
I am working as part of the Genetics and Breeding group at NIAB. My research focused on root biology and genetics for the development and validation of root ideotypes in wheat through the identification and characterization of de novo alleles.