Scientific Reseach

The assemblages of nematodes present in soil (and other) samples can be used as indicators for environmental monitoring. My research uses nematodes as environmental indicators to look at the soil of various ecosystems and agricultural settings. My primary research in this areas is currently seeking to determine the nematode assemblages within the UKs temperate rainforests and whether these are predictive of soil organic carbon (SOC).

Nematodes are notoroiusly difficult to identify by morphological means and so another key focus of my research is to develop and validate new and exisiting molecular methods for the identification of nematodes from environmental samples.

I am also interested in sustainable food production from a regulatory and marketing persepctive. So some of my reseach investigates the regulatory environments surrounding novel food production systems and how the produce from these systems can be best marketed and sold.

Pedagogic Research

I am an advocate for critical thinking and much of my educational research centres around Bloom's taxonomy, constructive alignment and assessment methods. I am also interested in graduate teaching assistants (GTA) and the role they play in student learning which is a relatively understudied area of pedagogic research.