I have been working in CPIB since April 2009. I have been looking at mechanical properties of the root in a broad context and developing methodologies to characterise them. I have been working on the application of Atomic force microscopy to study mechanical properties, specifically of the epidermal cells. I am also looking at other tensile testing methodologies to implement in studying living root samples, including the DMA. I am investigating polarised light microscopy and resultant forms of birefringence which may help us map the inherent structural properties of roots. The goal is to obtain parameters which will fit into the CPIB models. Most of my work is collaborative and have been developing external biophysical experimental support for CPIB. The AFM work is in collaboration with Dept. Of Pharmacy, University of Nottingham. The Birefringence work has been initiated with the Department of Physics, University of Oxford.

Background and Research Interests:

I am biophysicist with a background in solid state physics, thin film physics and wood science. My research interests include biomechanics of all sorts, surface physics, gas sensing, cellulose structure and rheology.

I worked with Langmuir Blodgett films, including working on few unconventional materials like phthalocyanines, besides nanoparticles for my doctoral degree under Dr Tim Richardson, Dept of Physics & Astronomy, University of Sheffield. I chiefly worked with UV-Visible spectroscopy, conductometry, gas sensing and thermal polarised microscopy (Collaboration with the Dept. Of Chemistry, University of Hull).

I then switched fields and went to work in wood biophysics with Dr Mike Jarvis, Dept of Chemistry, University of Glasgow. I developed a technique to study tensile properties of wood (in co-ordination with IR microscopy) which could be extended to other materials like bacterial films and the like. Few of the techniques I worked with are IR microcopy, NMR and its variants, Raman microscopy in conjunction with tensile testing (Collaboration with Max Planck Institute, Golm, Germany) and X-ray Diffraction.

CPIB Talks:

“Application of Atomic Force Microscopy as a novel technique to investigate mechanical properties of root epidermal cells.” Plant Growth Biology and Modelling Workshop, 14-16 October 2009, Elche-Spain.