Lab Members

 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) 

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​​ Dr Silvere Vialet-Chabrand  
​ Post-doctoral researcher: TIGR2ESS: Improving Water Use and 
​ Yield Stability in Pearl Millet and Sorghum

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​Dr Jack Matthews 
Post-doctoral researcher: IWYP: Manipulating stomatal blue light response in wheat to improve productivity

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John Stamford 
Post-doctoral researcher: Hy4Dense: Developing hydroponic systems for vegetables sown at high density 

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​  Dr Mike Fryer  
​  Research Officer: Plant imaging and physiology
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James Stevens 
PhD candidate: Characterising photosynthesis, stomatal conductance and water use efficiency in barley. Comparing varieties with and without a functioning circadian clock.

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Shellie Wall 
PhD candidate: Determining the extent to which anatomical stomatal characters influence leaf transpiration, temperature and CO2 assimilation in wheat.

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Duncan Sweeney 
PhD candidate: How plant-microbe interactions affect soil functioning

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Amnah Alamri 
PhD candidate: Role of guard cell chloroplasts in coordinating mesophyll and stomatal response.

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Technical Staff

​​​​  Dr Phil Davey  
​  Departmental Technician: Plant and Algal Physiology

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Dr Martin Battle
Lab Technician: TIGR2ESS: Improving Water Use and Yield Stability in Pearl Millet and Sorghum

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Mr Joe Chadwick
Lab Technician: Newton Institutional Links Program: Phenotyping rice photosynthesis for sustainable Thai rice production 

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​Recent Papers

New Opportunities

Current Projects

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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.