The sweet smell of success

Huge congratulations to BAC-STOP researcher Gareth Thomas who scooped Best Poster at the recent International Plant Health Conference. Gareth’s poster entitled ‘Using the odour of bacteria to tackle acute oak decline’ beat off competition from across the globe to be named both Day 2 and Overall Conference Winner.

The first ever International Plant Health Conference was held in London on 21–23 September 2022. It was co-organised by the UK Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (DEFRA) and the Secretariat of the International Plant Protection Convention (IPPC) of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations. The conference aimed to bring together policy makers and scientists to address new and emerging plant health challenges, including climate change impacts, the significant increase in international trade, the rapid loss of biological diversity and new pest pathways.

The poster competition was judged by Chief Plant Health Officer Nicola Spence, the IPPC Secretary Osama El-Lissy and the author and environmental advisor Jonathan Drori. They judged all of the posters submitted by early career researchers, considering the quality of the research as well as the effectiveness of their communication.

Although the satisfaction of winning against such stiff competition is probably reward enough, Gareth will also be featured in the conference report and will receive one of Jonathan Drori’s books and a conference rucksack.

Well done Gareth from everyone at BPD! You can read more about Gareth’s research here.