I am Research Fellow at the University of Liverpool, currently funded by the Royal Commission for the Exhibition of 1851. My main research aim is to identify and characterise factors that underpin virus and vector success in agricultural ecosystems . I also contribute towards multi-partner projects that aim to develop smart and sustainable AI-driven pest management solutions and I have an ongoing and active interest in the identification and characterisation of plant traits that confer resistance against aphids and tolerance against aphid-vectored viruses. 
 
Brief Profile:
I was awarded my PhD in 2019 from The University of Dundee. My PhD research focussed on investigating how drought stress affects the plant-aphid relationship. With a sub-focus examining how aphid endosymbionts influence aphid behaviour and success in this system.

In 2019 I took up an Entomology position at the agriculture and environment consultancy organisation, RSK ADAS Ltd. Here I contributed to numerous research projects with the overall aim of identifying sustainable methods for herbivorous insect management. Key projects include insecticide resistance monitoring, herbivorous insect population modelling, and developing novel  image-analysis methods to support insect identification.

In 2021 I moved to the Institute of Geobotany at Leibniz University of Hannover in Germany. My research at Hannover was funded by an Alexander von Humboldt Postdoctoral Research Fellowship and a research grant provided by the British Ecological Society. Here my research  investigated how the structure and composition of the agricultural landscape affects the intra-specific diversity (e.g. genotype, endosymbiont presence) in cereal aphids and the cabbage stem flea beetle. The overall aim of these projects were to highlight ecological links between landscape diversity and endosymbiont communities within important herbivorous insect species.

Following my Humboldt Fellowship I secured a Research Fellowship from the Royal Commission for the Exhibition of 1851 and moved to the University of Liverpool in 2022. At Liverpool my research aimed to  identify and characterise factors that underpin virus and vector success in agricultural ecosystems, focussing on cereal aphids and barley yellow dwarf virus. I also continued to develop smart and sustainable pest management options, contributing towards a project that developed an AI-driven tool for insect pest management.

Collaborators and partners:
Throughout my career I have worked with multiple partners across academia and industry, with collaborators based in the UK, Ireland, Germany, Chile, and Argentina. 

Recent collaborators at academic and research institutions include: Dr S Zytynska (The University of Manchester, UK), Prof P Yang (The University of Sheffield, UK), Dr J Bos (The University of Dundee, UK), Dr T Pope & J Roberts (Harper Adams University), Dr K Preedy (Biomathematics and Statistics Scotland, UK), Dr L Bramham (Rothamsted Research, UK),  Dr S Byrne & Dr L Mc Namara (Teagasc, Ireland),   Prof E Martin (Justus Liebig University Giessen, Germany), Dr T Will (The Julius Kühn-Institut, Germany), Prof C Ramirez (The University of Talca, Chile), and Dr P Gundel (The University of Buenos Aires, Argentina).

I also work with partners based in industry and third-sector organisations, including: Dr N Musa & Dr M Ramsden (RSK ADAS Ltd, UK), Dr S White (The Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board, UK), and Dr Tim Li (Mutus Tech Ltd, UK).