SEB Annual Conference Florence 2026

Dr. Nicholas Freestone

School of Life Sciences, Pharmacy and Chemistry, Kingston University, London

Nick Freestone is an Associate Professor in Physiology and Pharmacology and Course Leader for a suite of undergraduate degrees in Pharmaceutical Science at Kingston University in south west London.  He is co-Chair of the Royal Society of Biology’s “Bridging Awarding Gaps in the Biosciences” Network and a member of the British Pharmacological Society’s Inclusive Pharmacology Education Steering Group. He was also, until recently, an Education Theme Lead for The Physiological Society. In 2014 he was the UK’s Higher Education Bioscience Teacher of the Year as awarded by Oxford University Press and the Higher Education Academy and is now Chair of the panel of judges for this award for the Royal Society of Biology. In 2021 he was awarded a National Teaching Fellowship for his work in addressing awarding gaps both in his local teaching environment and also nationally.

 

Prof. Jurriaan Ton

University of Sheffield

I am a plant pathologist at the University of Sheffield (UoS). My lab explores how plants adapt to recurrent stress from pests and diseases. Apart from our long-standing interests in the molecular perception and signalling of chemicals that prime plant immunity (‘plant vaccines’), our current research mostly focuses on the epigenetic pathways by which plants memorise environmental stress and acquire long-term resistance. My lab also studies the functional relationship between root exudation chemistry and root-associated microbial communities, to gain a better understanding of how such rhizosphere interactions boost plant resilience against environmental stresses. Outside the lab, I co-direct the P3 Centre for Plant and Soil Biology of the Sheffield Institute for Sustainable Food. In this role, I work closely with agricultural stakeholders to facilitate the translation of fundamental research on model systems into sustainable solutions for crop protection.

Dr. Amanda Cavanagh

University of Essex

Dr. Amanda Cavanagh’s research interest in plant environmental physiology covers molecular biology, biochemistry, and leaf physiology. Amanda completed her PhD at the University of New Brunswick in Canada, where she worked on Rubisco - the enzyme that feeds the world. During her postdoc at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in the USA, she tested synthetic biology pathways that improve photosynthetic performance in crops under field and environmental stress conditions. She is currently a lecturer at the University of Essex, where her lab explores leaf and plant-level responses to abiotic stress under field and laboratory conditions, and is developing strategies to optimize crop performance in response to the changing climate.

: @@cavycavs @PlantEssex