Yesterday I attended an interesting 1 day meeting organized by SCI on New Frontiers in Crop Research http://bit.ly/2cQxOjd. During the discussion about how to engage business and academic communities, I made the point that Undergraduate Research Studentships can be useful here. Typically, these are carried out over the summer pre-final BSc year to help students see if research is for …
Plant Science in the Neighbourhood
A couple of weeks ago I held our 5th annual seedling swap at home and used the opportunity to tell friends and neighbours about the plant health professional register (http://rsb plant health register news). Today, I learned that the Animal and Plant Health Agency will be at the Gardeners World exhibition next week (https://www.bbcgardenersworldlive.com) promoting plant protection in the garden. Our …
The changing landscape of plant biology careers
Far from some previous depictions of plants being the dull part of school biology lessons, we now see Tim Peake’s space mission appealing to thousands of schoolchildren to grow rocket seeds that have travelled in space (https://www.rhs.org.uk/about-the-rhs/blogs/news-blog/January-2016/seeds-in-space). Can an interest in plant biology lead to career opportunities? Almost certainly is the answer, but the real answer is we can’t be …