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 Microbiome Green Revolution Project
Dr Peter Mark
Laboratory Technician in the group from 2024: Crop Cultivation and Microbial Ecology
Part of the Microbiome Green Revolution Project
Miles Nesbit
PhD 2023-2027: Evidence and impact of parasite spillover across pollinator communities
Co-I: Dr Lauren Cator (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
Dr 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.
Akpe Eddy-Doh
Global Development Hub Fellow 2024/25:
Sustainable biocontrol of the Oil Palm Leaf Miner Beetle in Ghana
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)