The Group
Current members and their research topics
Dr Susie Hawthorne
Postdoc in the group from 2025: Pollinator Microbial Ecology
Co-I: Prof Quinn McFrederick (University of California:Riverside)
Co-I: Prof Marc-Emmanuel Dumas (Imperial)
Dr Bryony Dignam
Postdoc in the group from 2025: Plant-Soil Microbial Ecology
Part of the Green Microbiome Revolution Project
Dr Peter Mark
Laboratory Technician in the group from 2024: Crop Cultivation and Microbial Ecology
Part of the Green Microbiome Revolution Project
Miles Nesbit
PhD 2023-2027: Evidence and impact of parasite spillover across pollinator communities
Co-I: Dr Lauren Cator (Imperial)
Co-I: Dr Richard Gill (Imperial)
Co-I: Prof William OH Hughes (U Sussex)
Co-I: Prof Dave Goulson (U Sussex)
Find out about Miles’ work from his Imperial College Personal Webpage
Charlotte Fryday
PhD 2024-28: Exploring the boom and bust of metabolic functional gains and decay in evolving holobionts
Co-I: Prof Marc-Emmanuel Dumas (Imperial)
Vida Svahnstrom
PhD 2024-28: Extinction risk and threatened evolutionary history in epiphytic flowering plants
Co-I: Dr Eimear Nic Lughadha (Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew)
Co-I: Dr Tarcisco Leao (Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew)
Co-I: Dr Felix Forest (Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew)
Loveline Martin
MRes in Ecology, Evolution & Conservation (EEC) 2023/24:
The effects of soil microbiome manipulations on wheat growth
Emma Arulanantham
MRes in Ecology, Evolution & Conservation (EEC) 2023/24:
Impacts of warmer temperature on thermoregulation, parasite load, and fever in Bombus terrestris
Haitian Liu
MRes in Ecological Applications (EA) 2023/24:
Temporal Dynamics of Foraging Behaviour after pesticide exposure
Graystock lab alumni
Monika Yordanova
PhD 2020-24: Foul Brood Disease in the UK
Co-I: Dr Richard Gill (Imperial)
Co-I: Dr Sophie Evison (U Nottingham)
Find out about Monika’s work from her Imperial College personal webpage
After her PhD, Monika moved on to Postdoc position at Oxford University.
Charlotte Fryday
MSc in Ecology, Evolution & Conservation (EEC) 2022/23: Designing 3D printed arenas to explore parasite transmission
Zichao XIAO (Logan)
MSc in Ecology, Evolution & Conservation (EEC) 2022/23: Evolving microbes to explore possible probiotic function
Xiao Zhang
MRes in Ecology, Evolution & Conservation (EEC) 2022/23: Effects of parasites and pesticides on honeybee larval health
Yin Ho Chan (Noel)
MSc in Ecology, Evolution & Conservation (EEC) 2022/23: Optimising the invitro rearing protocol for Bombus terrestris
Tash Ramsden
MSc in Computational Methods in Ecology and Evolution (CMEE) 2021/22: Signals of selection in UK bumblebees
Paul Cabrisy
MSc in Computational Methods in Ecology and Evolution (CMEE) 2021/22: Machine learning to track bumblebees
Congjia Chen
MSc in Computational Methods in Ecology and Evolution (CMEE) 2021/22: Microbial associations and inferred interactions in wild bumblebees.
Carlota Berbel
MSc in Ecology, Evolution & Conservation (EEC) 2021/22: Effects of commonly used pesticides on bee development.
Dylan Asbury
MSc in Ecology, Evolution & Conservation (EEC) 2021/22: The impacts of pesticides on bumblebee (Bombus terrestris) health.
Sofia Riccomagno
MSc in Ecology, Evolution & Conservation (EEC) 2021/22: Associations between host and microbe diversity.
Heiloi Yip
BSc final year project 2021/22: Does exposure to antibiotics influence bumblebee colony development?
Lok Man Yuen
BSc final year project 2021/22: The direct and indirect effects of antibiotics and fungicides on bumblebee health.
Ethan Sim
BSc final year project 2021/22: Cocoons as indicators of bumblebee colony performance.
Harriet Selway
BSc final year project 2021/22: Does exposure to fungicide influence bumblebee colony development?
Acacia Tang
MRes in Computational Methods in Ecology and Evolution (CMEE) 2020/21: Exploring the Gut-brain axis of bees using advanced camera tracking and machine learning
Cong Liu
MRes in Computational Methods in Ecology and Evolution (CMEE) 2020/21: A deep dive into metagenomic analyses of pollinator microbiomes
Ellen Marandola
MSc in Ecology, Evolution & Conservation (EEC) 2020/21: Exploring the drivers of plant-pollinator interactions
Alumni that don’t have video summaries or photos..
- 2023/24 Temea
- 2023/24 Joely
- 2023/24 Jack Arthur
- 2023/24 Sophie Ball (BSc Final Year Project) – The effect of fungicides on the growth of bumblebee-associated microbes
- 2023/24 Georgina Chow (BSc Final Year Project) – Hosts & their hives: how do bumblebee microbes affect phoretic mites
- 2023/24 Frankie Turner (BSc Final Year Project) – The effect of an antibiotic, streptomycin sulfate, on the growth of bumblebee-associated microbes
- 2022/23 Katrina Tan (BSc Final Year Project) – Brood Pathogen Dynamics within a Plant-Pollinator Network
- 2022/23 Maggie Ma (BSc Final Year Project) – 3D scanning bees and their nests
- 2022/23 Naomi Oliveira (BSc Final Year Project) – The effect of pesticide exposure on the growth of bee associated microbes in vitro
- 2021/22 Yeahji Jeong (EEC MRes) – Are all flowers pathogen transmission hubs?
- 2021/22 Nicholas Eves (EEC MRes) – Directed evolution of bee associated microbes.
- 2021/22 Grace Tanner (EEC MRes) – Disease prevalence in UK honey bees.
- 2021/22 Grace Foley (BSc Final Year Project) – How is bee foraging influenced by exposure to pesticides?
- 2019/20 Ryan Ellis (CMEE MRes) – The population genetics of wild bees
- 2019/20 Adam Bourne (EA MSc) – Honey bee health and bee management
- 2019/20 Julie Chow (BSc Final Year Project) – Diversity and control of bumblebee microbes
- 2019/20 Gain Hahn (BSc Final Year Project) – Insect diseases
- 2019/20 Reeyakorn Srininwan (BSc Final Year Project) – Insect declines
- 2019/20 Jeannine Coelho (BSc Final Year Project) – Disease hotspots in the UK
- 2019/20 Miguel Bailey Perez (BSc Final Year Project) – Historical trends in academia
- 2019/20 Jiayin Zhang (EEC MRes) – Microbial tolerance
- 2019/20 Tong Li (EEC MRes) – Microbial tolerance
- 2018/19 Chloe Sargent (EEC MSc) – Microbiome functional traits
- 2018/19 Helena Costa (BSc Final Year Project) – Antioxidant influence on bee health
The lab accommodates a range of interdisciplinary projects and frequently host students at silwood and on the following masters streams;
Ecology, Evolution & Conservation (EEC)