Dr Nina Ockendon-Powell

I am a molecular pathologist/ecologist and computational biologist, experienced in managing international collaborative research and knowledge exchange, large investment research funding, and sustainable development, often working across the boundaries between disciplines. My research unites aspects of all these to tackle what is likely to be the largest global impact from a changing climate: undernutrition. My interests lie in interdisciplinary and translational research, where vector-borne plant viral diseases sit at the nexus between climate change and human health via impacts on nutrition security, developing particular interests in viral diversity in ecological settings plus vector distributions and control. I am particularly interested in cucurbit crops and the viruses and vectors which decimate yields globally as these present an interesting model of viral disease emergence in a nutritionally-important cropping system. 

I also work on developing new operational models for building interdisciplinary research collaboration and capacity, alongside impact initiatives that ensure reserach findings are translated into meaingful tools for that benefit society and the natural world.