Anne Plessis

A manifesto for plant science education Plants provide oxygen, food, shelter, medicines and environmental services, without which human society could not exist. Tackling pressing and global challenges requires well-trained plant scientists....

Very excited to announce that our collaborative manifesto for 🌱 #PlantScience #Education has now been published! Educators from >10 countries and 30 institutions have contributed to it and we are incredibly proud of the final output. Here is a short thread 🧵1/4 doi.org/10.1002/ppp3...

Join us on Bluesky and find out more about the www.wheatinitiative.org

It is with deep sadness that we share that Professor Amy Marshall-Colon passed away over the weekend. Amy was a gifted scientist, generous colleague, and strong advocate for early career faculty. She will be deeply missed by our department and the wider plant biology community.

Potted wheat plants in a growth cabinet

Ever wondered whether it is a good idea to run abiotic stress experiments in controlled conditions? Here's an evidence-based answer:
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...
@plantdirectj.bsky.social
@wheatinitiative.bsky.social

Is My Stress Out of Place? Bread Wheat Response to Saline Stress Varies in Pattern and Extent Across Experimental Settings Adopting crops and agricultural practices that help sustain yield under abiotic stress will be a major element of future food security under climate change. However, little of the intensive research ...

Ever wondered whether it is a good idea to run abiotic stress experiments in controlled conditions? Here's an evidence-based answer:
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...
@wheatinitiative.bsky.social @plantteaching.bsky.social

I am so happy that this paper co-authored with John Duprè is out! Open access journals.publishing.umich.edu/ptpbio/artic...
Please share with others who might be interested! #philsci #philbio 🌱

"Who used my P1000 pipette?"

Unfortunately, there is relatively little crop-related research in most UK universities with research in the life sciences dominated by the biomedical sector.

Hen looking at the camera

Two sheep grazing in a meadow

Hi Bluesky, last few days to apply for these PhDs, on new technologies for... hen welfare www.plymouth.ac.uk/study/resear... ... & for understanding the role of livestock in the landscape www.plymouth.ac.uk/study/resear... Thanks :-)

Very excited about this PhD project exploring new ways to model interactions of abiotic stress with environmental conditions in plants, combining sensor technology and advanced data analysis. Apply for a chance to change how we study environmental responses!
www.plymouth.ac.uk/study/resear...

Family includes everyone! ❤️

Fantastic second place of the Botanists of the Barbican, @plymbiomarsci.bsky.social team at the first round of @bucbotany.bsky.social They are only getting started!!!

Thanks Alun for this reflective and personal summary of the Plant Biology Education conference, I very much enjoyed reading it! Your perspective from outside academia fostered really interesting conversations. We were lucky you took the time to attend the conference!

Nobel prize winners call for urgent ‘moonshot’ effort to avert global hunger catastrophe More than 150 Nobel and World Food prize laureates sign open letter calling for immediate ramping up of food production

Food production matters www.theguardian.com/global-devel...

Welcome to Bluesky!

Only four more days to apply!!!

Image of Plymouth, with text 'Funded PhD Opportunities' & the University of Plymouth Logo.

Image of the Cornish Coastline. With text 'Doctoral Teaching Assistant x3, Pursue a PhD Degree & gain professional teaching experience. Deadline: 13/01/2025. Paid Position. PhD Research Project - 11 topics available.'

Image of the University of Plymouth Marine Station. With text 'PhD studentship with the Marine Institute. Deadline: 03/02/2025. Start Date: 01/10/2025. Fully Funded (Students Worldwide). PhD Research Project - 6 topics available.

Image of Plymouth with the Ocean and the hoe lighthouse. With text 'PhD studentship with Marine Research Plymouth. Deadline: 08/01/2025. Start Date: 01/10/2025. Fully Funded (Home Dees). PhD Research Project - 3 topics available.

#FundedPhD opportunities at the #UniversityofPlymouth
From collaborative research with #MarineResearchPlymouth to exciting projects at the Marine Institute or combining teaching & research with our Doctoral Teaching Assistantships– there’s something for every aspiring academic.
#PhDSky 🦊🦉🦑🐍🐋🌍🧪

Hey @zoejolylopez.bsky.social, do you know my soon to be former colleague @scootjd.bsky.social , who is coming your way in a few months? He's the one who helped me join Bluesky at the time when you still needed a code. His research is very cool!

Not surprised, I would expect differences when looking at the effect of most environmental factors. In my experiments, the effect of the location on development is the same scale (often higher) than the effect of the stress.

Plant Biology Education, Creating a vision for the future. A collaborative meeting to share best practices in higher education for preparing future plant biologists. Register Now, before 12 Dec 2024 if you want to attend in person.

One more quick plug for this event, we've got a fantastic line up of plant science educators attending and maybe you should do? Registation closes Dec 12.
January 7-8, Lancaster UK.
web.cvent.com/event/a17159...

Stressing about the wrong thing? Determining the long-term impacts of methodological short-cuts of salt stress treatments in crops This PhD project aims to compare artificial and realistic salt stress protocols in wheat, rice, and broad bean to identify salinity-related damages and...

Cool opportunity to get trained in research and teaching: become an expert in salt stress experimental design with this Doctoral Teaching Assistant job:
www.plymouth.ac.uk/schools/scho...
hrservices.plymouth.ac.uk/tlive_webrec...

There's less than a week to apply for this plant cell biology and plant pathology PhD opportunity with me and Imogen Sparkes. Please RT and pass on to motivated candidates!

This does not appear in my profile, but important to mention to new followers, I am not just a plant scientist, I am also a cat lady. The soft black sweety in the photo is called Raven!

SWBio DLA (www.swbio.ac.uk) has some very groovy PhD projects advertised, including one with me, Imogen Sparkes, Jim Fouracre & @discontinuedap.bsky.social: Developmental specificity of subcellular responses to plant fungal infection. Get in touch if you are interested! #plantpathology #plantcell

I am interested, but your link does not work for me! My research is focused on wheat and barley.

Really interesting to hear! I think we need more of those conversations between areas with different approaches to come up with new solutions to our specific issues.

Large scale experiments definitely important, but not possible for everyone. My opinion is that the answer is not simple, probably a combination of many approaches, including trying to make controlled conditions more similar to field environments. Hoping my research will help with that!

That's so nice to hear! Hopefully, I'll get some research results on this topic published soon.

Image of cracked dry soil with young rice plants growing, taken from above.

What is important when designing abiotic stress experiments? Sharing my reflection on this question with the plant community:
academic.oup.com/jxb/advance-...

Sorry about this! Hope it helps to know all the good feelings you bring to people who see your posts. Showing all your cute cat photos has also made me very popular with my nieces and friends' kids. Please don't stop 😻