Dr. Balig Panossian is a Postdoctoral Researcher on the Microbiome Green Revolution Project. Dr Panossian is responsible for managing the genome sequencing data generated by the project, optimising the relevant analysis workflows to make sense of the sampling data, and exploring the role that viruses play in shaping the ecological interactions between the wheat plants and the take-all fungus. He is a computational biologist with BSc and MSc degrees studying the genetics of hospital-associated pathogenic microbes at the Lebanese American University. He was awarded a travel research fellowship from the Academy of Medical Sciences, after which he conducted his PhD research at Queen Mary University of London on the genomics of beneficial symbiotic microbes.

Dr Bonnie Waring is a Reader in Ecosystems Ecology and the overall lead of the project. Her work focuses on the biogeochemistry of soil, particularly focusing on the ecology of plant and soil microbial communities and how they influence the carbon cycle and its feedback on climate. She is currently engaged in a range of projects related to the Microbiome Green Revolution project, including a large-scale reforestation project in Wales and a study of the controls on the formation of persistent, long-lived soil carbon in forest soils.

Dr Emma Ransome is Senior Lecturer at Imperial College London, based in the Department of Life Sciences at Silwood Park. She completed her PhD on the effects of global change on coral-microbe associations at Plymouth Marine Laboratory (and the University of Plymouth), UK, in 2013. Emma then moved to the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History in Washington DC, USA for her first postdoctoral position, where she worked on the biodiversity and biogeography of cryptic reef communities across the Pacific. In 2016 she returned to the UK to take a postdoctoral position at Imperial College London investigating the effects of global warming on freshwater microbes. This led to a Researcher Co-Investigator role on the NERC grant “A novel framework for predicting emerging chemical stressor impacts in complex ecosystems”, in 2019. Emma started her lectureship at Imperial College London in January 2020.

George Kalogiannis is a Research Assistant on the Microbiome Green Revolution project. He is a computational biologist with experience studying the link between the ecology and evolution of bacteria, insects, and their traits. His role on the project has been to provide technical support for the development and management of bioinformatics pipelines, as well as documentation for data standardisation and high-performance computing hardware and software use. He graduated with a BSc in Zoology from the University of Sussex, and an MRes in the field of Computational Biology from Imperial College London.

Lena Lancastle was a laboratory technician working on Task 1 helping to organise and coordinate the collection of wheat samples across the UK. Through her extensive experience in field work, she helped develop methodologies adopted for Task 1. She has been working in the Waring lab since 2021, assisting on research in reforestation and carbon sequestration as well as belowground windthrow disturbance in forests. After gaining her undergraduate in Geography (BSc) from the University of Sussex, Lena worked with the Forestry Commission on plant health surveys before joining Imperial. She is now continuing her education at the University of Sheffield pursuing a PhD in Arctic ecosystem function.

Professor Olubukola O. Babalola is a collaborating scientist on the Microbiome Green Revolution Project. She is responsible for adding value in terms of multi-omics. She stands as a luminary in science and research. With a remarkable African tenure specialising in rhizosphere microbiome research, her expertise in the intricate interactions among plant roots, microbes, and surrounding soil aims at bolstering agricultural productivity, ushering in improved crop yields, heightened food security, and the adoption of more sustainable farming practices. Baba’s endeavours transcend geographical boundaries and enrich global scientific discourse.

Dr. Paidamoyo Mataranyika is a Postdoctoral Researcher on the Microbiome Green Revolution Project. Her role on the project has been to lead the farm survey collecting samples and data from farmers. Her expertise is in beneficial plant-microbe interactions, plant growth promoting bacteria (PGPB), biocontrol of pathogenic fungi and biofertilizer development. She graduated from the University of Namibia with a PhD in Biological Sciences (Microbiology) in 2023 and has a Bachelor of Science (Honors) in Microbiology and a Master’s in Health Sciences.

Dr Peter Graystock is a Lecturer in Human and Animal Health in the Department of Life Sciences. In 2013 he completed a PhD on Parasite spillover at Leeds and the university received a NERC impact award in recognition for its societal impact. After holding postdoctoral positions at several institutes including the University of California Riverside and Cornell University, he was awarded an Imperial College Research Fellowship to explore microbiome engineering. In 2022 he accepted a lectureship at Imperial College London. The research of his lab focusses on host-microbe interactions identifying ways to reduce parasite threats and improve beneficial microbes.

Dr. Peter Mark is a Research Technician on the Microbiome Green Revolution Project. He is responsible for piloting and conducting the experiments in Task 2. He graduated from the University of Glasgow with a BSc. in horticulture and plantsmanship, University of Edinburgh with a MSc. in the biodiversity and taxonomy of plants (2011) and the University of Reading/Nottingham with a PhD in agronomy/plant physiology (2016). As well as working in secondary school science education, he has undertaken research into abiotic stress in production agriculture (Harper Adams University & Croda International PLC).

Professor Samraat Pawar is Professor of Theoretical Ecology in the Department of Life Sciences. His expertise lies in applying metabolic scaling and biochemical kinetics theories at the cellular level to understanding, predicting, and engineering functionally stable ecosystems. He leads the Digital Microbiome project, the main modelling tool that this project will be using.

Professor Tom Bell is Professor Microbial Ecology in the Department of Life Sciences and deputy lead of the Microbiome Green Revolution project. He joined Imperial in 2010 as a Royal Society University Research Fellowship and has since been promoted up to professor in 2021. He is currently deputy head of the department of Life Sciences, co-director of the Imperial Microbiome Network, and founding Director of the Leverhulme Centre for the Holobiont, a 10-year (£10M) effort to understand the linkages and interactions between hosts and their microbes. Throughout that time his research has focussed on using laboratory and field experiments to understand microbial communities across a wide range of ecosystems including in an agricultural context.

Dr. Yan Zhu is a Postdoctoral Researcher on the Microbiome Green Revolution project. He is responsible for integrating the observational, experimental, and DNA sequencing results into a mathematical framework that will allow prediction of Take-all. He earned his PhD in Biophysics from the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC) in June 2024, following a Master’s degree in Mathematics from Jiangsu University. His expertise spans mathematical modeling, machine learning, and microbial growth kinetics. His research focuses on quantifying environmental impacts on microbiome dynamics and predicting microbiological community compositions/functions. Originally from China, Yan has won first and second prizes in national and provincial mathematical modeling competitions. He is also a recipient of the Students’ Innovation and Entrepreneurship Foundation of USTC (2023) and has been awarded first/second-class scholarships from USTC for three consecutive years (2021-24).