Iain Place

Background

About Iain Place

Starting from an initial interest in plant stress responses, I focused on the challenges of producing enough food while reducing the environmental impact of agriculture. This led me to study integrated pest management, and later take on a PhD studentship. There, I researched a means of unlocking new forage grass breeding methodologies made unavailable due to the presence of a self-incompatibility system in grasses. Through bulk segregant analysis and gene mutation impact evaluation, I identified likely candidates for a gene which, when mutated, caused the system to break down. Knowledge of these genes will allow commercial breeders to produce improved varieties of forage grasses more efficiently, enabling them to meet the changing demands of animal production systems in the future. From here, I have taken up a new position at Vertegrow Ltd. as their Lead Horticulturalist. Currently I am responsible for researching new ways to improve crop productivity and the shelf-life of post-harvest produce while working in a vertical hydroponics production system.