Lab Members

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​ Professor Tracy Lawson  
​  Director of Essex Plant Innovation Centre (EPIC)
 ​ Director of Plant Phenomics Research facility
  Director of Impact (Plant Productivity)
​  Research Group Convenor (Plant Productivity) 
  Vice President (Society of Experimental Biology)
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Dr John D. Stamford 
Post-doctoral researcher: Hy4Dense: Developing hydroponic systems for vegetables sown at high density 
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Dr Martin Battle
Post-doctoral researcher: TIGR2ESS: Improving Water Use and Yield Stability in Pearl Millet and Sorghum
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Dr Shellie Wall 
Post-doctoral researcher: RIPE: Determining the extent to which anatomical stomatal characters influence leaf transpiration, temperature and CO2 assimilation in wheat.
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Dr Jyotirmaya Mathan
​Postdoctoral researcher: Capitalise: Working with nature to improve crops
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Dr Pauline Lemonnier
​Postdoctoral researcher:  RIPE:  Assessing speed of stomatal responses to improve photosynthesis and water use efficiency. 
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Robyn Emmerson 
PhD candidate: Epigenetic regulation of acclimation to fluctuating light
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Alexandra Milliken 
PhD candidate: Improving Yield Potential By Exploiting Natural Variation in Pea
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Ece Imam Moustafa
PhD candidate: CTP-FCR: Improving cane crop resilience by overcoming the legacy effects on photosynthesis during the recovery from short-term combined stresses
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Mengjie Fan
PhD candidate: Optimizing photosynthesis performance, marketable yields, and berry quality using blue light
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Alexander Buckingham
Masters Student: Using chlorophyll fluorescence imaging as a method for detecting herbicidal modes of action ​
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Piotr Kasznicki
Undergraduate Student/Research technician
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Yathreb Mahjoubi 
Visiting PhD student: Exogenous application of Nitric Oxide (NO) to mitigate manganese stress
Technical Staff
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​​​​  Dr Phil Davey  
​  Departmental Technician: Plant and Algal Physiology
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  ​Dr Mike Fryer  
​  Research Officer: Plant imaging and physiology
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Past lab members


Mariella Ragni (Postdoctoral Research Assistant, 2008-2010)
  • NERC funded project:  Effect of light, CO2 and nutrient limitation on photosynthesis in marine diazotrophic cyanobacteria.
Laing Dong (Postdoctoral Research Assistant,  2009-2011) 
  • NERC Funded project: A Community metabolism approach to examine the environmental regulation of coral growth.  
Lindzai Torres Santa Rosa (PhD student, 2009-2013)
  • co-supervised with Dr David Suggett : Environmental Regulation Of Coral Productivity: Physiological Mechanisms And Adaptive Constraints
Lorna McAusland (PhD student, 2010-2014).
  • Stomatal Regulation of Plant Water Use Efficiency in Response to Environmental Change
Laura Bretherton (PhD student, 2010-2015)
  • co-supervised with Dr David Suggett: Impact Of Ocean Acidification Upon Phytoplankton Photosynthetic Physiology and Growth
Toby Boatman (PhD student, 2011-2015) 
  • co-supervised with Prof Richard Geider: The Combined Effects Of Varying CO2, Light and Temperature on the Growth Rates of Trichodesmium erythraeum IM101
Narin Chan (PhD student, 2011-2015) 
  • co-supervised with Prof Richard Geider: The Effects of Growth Conditions on the Biochemical Composition of Marine Microalgae.​
Stuart Fisk (PhD student, 2011-2015) 
  • co-supervised with Prof Christine Raines: The Influence Of Transketolase On Calvin Cycle Intermediates, Thiamine Biosynthesis and Seedling Establishment.
​​Wael Obaid (PhD student, 2012-2016) 
  • co-supervised with Prof Ian Colbeck: The Impact of Silver Nanoparticles on Plant Physiology
Yazen Al-Salman (MSc Research, 2014-2016) 
  • The Influence of the evolution of anatomical characters on leaf hydraulic capacity.  
Kucheli Bhata (PhD student, 2014-2018) 
  • Role of guard cell chloroplasts and in coordinating response to mesophyll and stomata
Michele Faralli (Post-doctoral researcher, 2016-2019) 
  • PHOTOWHEAT: Exploiting variation in stomatal dynamics and ear photosynthesis to optimise wheat productivity.
Ifeanyi Oyemike (PhD student, 2015-2019)
  • Manipulating guard cell anatomy and physiology using molecular and physiological approaches to understanding impact on crop performance
Duncan Sweeney (PhD student, 2015-2019)
  • ​How plant-microbe interactions affect soil functioning
Joe Chadwick (Research Technician, 2018-2019)
  • Newton Institutional Links Program: Phenotyping rice photosynthesis for sustainable Thai rice production 
​Dr Silvere Vialet-Chabrand (Post-doctoral researcher, 2014-2020)
  • ​TIGR2ESS: Improving Water Use   and Yield Stability in Pearl Millet and Sorghum
​Dr Jack Matthews (Post-doctoral researcher, 2017-2021)
  • ​​IWYP: Manipulating stomatal blue light response in wheat to improve productivity
Dr James Stevens (Research Technician/Teaching Lecturer, 2019-2021)
  • EIRA Proof of Concept Grant: Using plant physiological signals to adjust environmental inputs in horticultural settings​
​Dr Jacob Pullin (Research technician, 2019-2021)
  • ​​AAFC IWYP Aligned Call: Stomatal signalling pathways for increasing yield potential in wheat
​Amnah Alamri (PhD Student, 2017-2021)
  • ​Role of guard cell chloroplasts in coordinating mesophyll and stomatal response