I am an algal physiologist and ecologist. My key interests are in understanding the diversity of metabolism in natural ecosystems and controlled environments and how such knowledge can be translated for innovation purposes by collaborating with industrial partners involved in biotechnology, bioenergy and natural high value products.
I have carried out research and supervision on a wide range of algal topics from the ecology of snow algae in Antarctica, remote sensing polar algae blooms, using algae for bioenergy, bioremediation, pigments and food production on earth across all continents to exploiting algae to help astronauts on long term space missions. I also lead the EU EIT-Food international algae biotechnology training courses across Europe.
My new Algal Metabolic Ecology group will study aspects of functional interactions between microbial biodiversity, biochemistry and environmental change. This will require a mix of traditional and contemporary field-based techniques and experimental systems in the laboratory. The main themes of this group are: Environmental Metabolomics and Physiology – discovering metabolic traits associated with cold tolerance, the role of metabolic plasticity in responding to environmental and climate change, the distribution of metabolic traits across populations, and Algal Biotechnology and Innovation – exploring novel sources of sustainable biomaterials, nutrients, high value products, feedstocks and bioenergy.
