Research Without Boundaries Pen Pals

I wish to introduce Hugh Roderick, a postdoc I met on my visit to the University of Leeds in the United Kingdom in September of this year, 2009. See below what he has written, his picture is also included and please feel free to contact him if you are interested. He has also provided the names and contacts of his colleagues who are in this Project with him.

Research without Boundaries is a group of PhD and early career post doctoral researchers based in the University of Leeds who would like to use their expertise to help young researchers in Africa. The group comes from across the health, environmental ecology, geography and plant science fields with technical knowledge in experimental design and execution that we would like to share with MSc and PhD students studying in African universities. The group is lead by me, Dr Hugh Roderick, a plant scientist who works on nematode resistance in banana crops, so I have a project that is directly applicable to African agriculture. However, the majority of the group work in more fundamental areas of research from plant DNA repair mechanisms to human nutrient requirements to the impact of different landscapes on biodiversity, but all members would like to use their expertise to help develop African based research that aims to improve human health and food security.

If you are interested in contacting the Leeds University researchers with any questions then you can visit the Research Without Boundaries Forum (http://www.africacollege.leeds.ac.uk/forum.php), register (it’s a quick and easy process!) and then post your query. If you have any specific questions about the scheme or the forum that you would like to ask me directly then please contact me at h.roderick@leeds.ac.uk.

Current Research
Plants respond to environmental stress factors using interacting signalling pathways that lead to resistance or tolerance. Therefore in order to successfully improve stress-tolerance in plants it is important to study stresses in combination. For my PhD I am investigating the molecular response of plants to combined drought and nematode stress in order to identify candidate genes which may be of use in developing plants that are resistant to multiple stresses. 

Research Interests
I am interested in collaborating with scientists in the developing world to develop stress-resistant crop varieties, with the aim of improving productivity and ustainability in areas of the world with adverse environmental pressures.

Current Research
Postdoctoral Researcher on the project “a chemical genetics approach to the analysis of peroxisome biogenesis”.

Research Interests
Peroxisomes are organelles that carry out diverse biochemical processes in eukaryotic cells, including the core pathways of β-oxidation and detoxification of reactive oxygen species. In multicellular organisms, defects in peroxisome assembly result in multiple biochemical and developmental abnormalities. I am interested in the biogenesis of peroxisomes and peroxisomal protein targeting and import in the model plant, Arabidopsis thaliana.

Current Research
I am currently studying for my PhD, looking at the environmental and socio-economic impacts of the cultivation of a biofuel crop, Jatropha curcas. The research is focused in Malawi and looks at how Jatropha could contribute to livelihood and environmental resilience in rural communities both at present and in future under climate change scenarios.

Research Interests
Adaptation to climate change, particularly in agricultural communities in the developing countries.

Current Research
Comparing density and reproductive success of common toadflax (Linaria vulgaris) at multiple spatial scales between the native (UK) and invasive (North American) ranges for my PhD.

Research Interests
Ecology and management of invasive alien plant species, with a particular focus on studying them in their native range.  I am also interested in economic botany and the direct and indirect impacts of non-native species on people’s health and livelihoods.

Current Research
Funding for research to investigate and document patient experiences during DOTS based TB treatment regimes in low and middle income countries. Research to determine the most effective strategies to provide patient support and supervision during DOTS treatment for TB to promote a more patient centred approach to health policy and practice.

Research Interests
Communicable Disease. Health Policy in low and middle income countries. Healthcare Provision in low and middle income countries. Public Health. Medical Anthropology.

Current Research
For my PhD I am studying the signalling pathway by which the plant hormone auxin leads to gene expression.  In particular I am using TAP-tagging and proteomics approaches as well as Y2H to find novel regulators of auxin signalling and ChIP to test the hypothesis that auxin-responsive gene expression is controlled by chromatin remodelling.

Research Interests
Auxin Signalling

Current Research
The aim of my PhD is to develop a crop yield forecasting system for the West African Sahel. Such a system would give advanced warning of crop failures, thus informing planning. It could also allow a range of crop management options to be assessed, enabling adaptation to emergent climate change.

Research Interests
Prediction of crop yields in West Africa.

Current Research
Natural resource management; Semi-arid environments. Land degradation assessments; integrating ecological indicators with social perceptions. Woodland management. UG dissertation conducted in Upper East Region of Ghana, and focussed on integrating ecological indicators with social perceptions for effective land degradation assessments. Involved site specific insights and identified land degradation gradient between sites.

Research Interests
The “Green Wall for the Sahara Initiative” that involves ecological sampling and social perceptions data collection.

Current Research
I am currently working as a post-doctoral researcher of the Nerc-funded Afar Consortium project. The purpose of the project is to study the current tectonic and magmatic unrest in the Afar region of northern Ethiopia. I use radar images acquired by the European satellite, Envisat, to form maps of surface deformations (interferograms). The aim is to detect and measure surface deformations across the whole Afar. The study area covers several active volcanic areas in Afar including Dabbahu, Manda-Hararo, Alayta, Tat Ale and Erta Ale volcanic segments.

Research Interests
I use satellite images and other ground-based measurements to monitor and study the deformation of the Earth’s surface caused by magma movements at depth. My favourite interest is to construct models explaining how, why, when and where magma moves from depth to surface.

Current Research
Biodiversity impacts of invasive species at multiple spatial scales.

Research Interests
I am interested in understanding the spatial characteristics of biodiversity to promote its sustainable use and conservation. I have worked mainly in the Northern Tanzania (migratory mammals routes, biodiversity monitoring programs, mapping and data analysis training) and in the Mediterranean coastal areas (impacts of exotic vegetation on native plants).

Current Research
I am currently a postdoctoral researcher on a three-year project ‘Managing Uncertainty in Dynamic Socio-Environmental Systems: An Application to UK Uplands’ funded by DEFRA and SEERAD through the Rural Economy and Land Use Programme.  Between 1999 and 2001 I worked as an ecologist with an international team of researchers investigating the social and environmental impacts of the construction and operation of a hydropower dam in Tanzania.  Since then I have worked on two UK Department for International Development (DFID) funded projects; one reviewing Common Pool Resource (CPR) management in semi-arid Tanzania and the other reviewing ten years of DFID funded research on CPR management in developing countries. During a one-year ESRC fellowship I collaborated with researchers from the Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI) and the University of Cape Town to investigate adaptation to multiple stresses, including heath and climate change, in the Sekhukhune District of South Africa.

Research Interests
I am an ecological social scientist with particular interests in the socio-ecological dimensions of sustainable natural resource management and local adaptation to environmental change.

Current Research
I am a postdoctoral researcher on a BBSRC and DFID funded project to develop transgenic plantain that is resistant to nematode attack. The resultant plantain will be donated to African farmers. The project is a collaboration with the International Institute for Tropical Agriculture in Uganda.

Research Interests
Application of transgenic technologies to the improvement of tropical crops with an emphasis on pest and disease resistance.

Current Research
My PhD project is part of TROBIT, which stands for Tropical Biomes in Transition and is a consortium of leading UK climate modellers, micrometeorologists, climatologists, earth observation scientists, vegetation modellers, ecologists, soil scientists and plant physiologists. We examine the role of tropical biome transitions between savanna and forest in affecting the magnitude and rate of future climate change. The project has strong links to established local collaborators on three continents. Taken as a whole, TROBIT is a multidisciplinary model-data development program with the specific objective of obtaining new and better predictions of the state of the future Earth System. As part of the field work, permanent sampling plots (including identification of all trees with a diameter at breast height > 10cm and soil piths of 2m depth) where established in Bolivia, Brazil, Cameroon, Mali, Burkina-Faso and Ghana.

Research Interests
Soil - vegetation interactions, Plant functional traits, ecosystem functioning in tropical savanna and forest ecosystems, adaptation to climate change, forest conservation, science education.

Current Research
I am a postdoctoral researcher on a project that is integrating top down and bottom up approaches in quantifying adaptation to climate change, e.g. in crop modelling (see Challinor et al. below). Part of this will be carried out with fieldwork in Malawi and possibly Botswana combining quantitative & qualitative research across different spatial scales, e.g. participatory research methods and statistics data.

Research Interests
I am interested in various aspects of agricultural land use change and the relation with global change, e.g. impacts of climate change, food security, agricultural extension, on-farm experiments on sustainable solutions for agriculture & aquaculture.