Elizabeth’s main focus of research is on optimizing agricultural outputs (through food and energy) while reducing their environmental impact. While livestock and grassland sciences have a dominant role within this due to the structure of the NI agri-food industry, increasingly a key focus is on non-livestock food systems, especially how they can work in complementarity with livestock-based systems.

Elizabeth has worked extensively on industry/academic studies and presented her work across the UK and at international conferences, as well as in journal publications. In 2017, she was awarded BSAS’s Sir John Hammond Award, in recognition of her scientific work in collaboration with industry.

Some achievements during Elizabeth’s career include being the Scientific Co-ordinator of a large EU FP7 project ECO-FCE, being elected as President of BSAS in 2023; being a Director of UK Centre of Excellence for Livestock (CIEL) in its formative months and leading consortia formed of academics across the UK on two influential publications, funded by CIEL, aligned with livestock and its Net Zero position.

.Jim’s research is focused on management prescriptions and monitoring for agri-environment schemes, sustainable management of upland and peatland ecosystems, agroforestry systems and the impact of potential climate change on agricultural and terrestrial ecosystems.

Jim was elected Fellow of the Royal Agricultural Societies in 2005. He was awarded an OBE in 2014 for his contribution to agriculture and research in the Falkland Islands and he is Chairman of The Agricultural History Society of Ireland.

From 1973-1976, he was Head of Parasitology in the East African Veterinary Research Organisation, Kenya, under the British VSO scheme. Following a year as Research Fellow in the Department of Zoology, Imperial College, London, he joined Queen's University and worked there until 1989 as a Lecturer in Zoology. During this time Robert’s research interests centred on immunogenicity of Fasciola and on structural and epidemiological studies of paramphistome parasites of ruminants. He established academic links and interchange between Queen's and several leading universities in India (mainly Aligarh Muslim University and Madras University).

Robert undertook veterinary studies in University College Dublin, graduating with MVB Hons in 1993. From 1993 until 1999, he worked in a mixed veterinary practice in County Down. Since 1999, Robert worked as a Veterinary Research Officer in the Veterinary Sciences Division (formerly of the Department of Agriculture, and latterly part of the Agri-Food and Biosciences Institute) at Stormont, Belfast.

Robert’s duties are mainly diagnostic pathology and histopathology. His research interests are centred in Parasitology, particularly collaborative studies with colleagues in Queen's on the toxicological histopathology and ultrastructural morphology of Fasciola.

Robert teaches Veterinary Parasitology at Queen's, having held Honorary Readership from 2004 to 2012 and Honorary Professorship from 2012 until present.

Robert was awarded an Honorary Adjunct Professorship in Biotechnology by Madras University in 2004. He is author/co-author of 120 peer-reviewed research articles, a number of reviews and book chapters and many technology-transfer articles.

Robert was awarded a Fellowship of the Royal College of Pathologists in 2008, Fellowship of the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons in 2014 and has been a Diplomat of the European Veterinary Parasitology College since 2006. He was awarded the degree of DSc by Queen's in 2016.

Nitsara’s expertise is in diagnostic development for wide ranges of food security purposes. She also employes state-of-the-art biotechnology platforms to address problems for the shrimp industry.

Nitsara has received numerous awards and honours, including 'Outstanding ONE HEALTH Researcher in Aquaculture Award', Outstanding Young Technologist, UNESCO-L'Oreal Women in Science Fellowship, Young Global Leader from World Economic Forum. She serves as an executive board member of the Thai Academy of Science and Technology.

Nitsara has been appointed as a member of the National Strategy Drafting Committee. The National Strategy (2018-2037) is Thailand’s first national long-term strategy developed pursuant to the Constitution to ensure that the country achieves its vision of becoming “a developed country with security, prosperity and sustainability in accordance with the Sufficiency Economy Philosophy”.

Nitsara is dedicated to mentoring the next generation of scientists, nationally and internationally. She was the founding Co-Chair of the Global Young Academy in 2010 and was honoured as a Young Global Leader in 2013 by the World Economic Forum. In Thailand, she established the Thai Young Scientists Academy to build networks among young scientists and create mentoring channels for them. She has published the best-selling book “Push the Limits” to inspire others to strive in their life from her life experiences.

Nitsara has been celebrated as a female scientist role model by many organizations and media: “Women Scientists in Asia” by the Association of Academies and Societies of Sciences in Asia (AASSA), “Women Gallery” by World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), Barbie’s Celebration of International Women Day 2023, “Women Who Make a Difference” by Thailand Tatler, “Working Women of the Year 2009” by Phuying magazine, and 1 of 50 “Women Who Will Make a Change” by A Day magazine. She has also been featured in Nature and Scientist magazines.

Yongning graduated from Nanjing Medical College in 1983, then from the Chinese Academy of Preventive Medicine with a PhD degree in Nutrition and Food Safety in 1997. He received the UICC Fellowship in International Agency for Research on Cancer in 1991-92 and the Royal Society Fellowship in UK MRC Toxicology Unit in 1997-1998.

Yongning’s publicised research interests lie in the interface between One Health and public health, with a particular interest in addressing the major global challenges of food safety and authenticity, encompassing wide expertise across chemical-contaminant detection, antimicrobial resistance and food allergy for alternative protein as well as food-systems traceability and transparency. He serves on the editorial advisory boards for several journals - on food, environmental science and preventive medicine.

Yongning has served on national and international food-safety committees. As a member of the Food Ingredients International Adulterants Expert Panel, he was awarded for Outstanding Contribution to USP Standards. He also received the Outstanding Contribution Award to CSoT (2017) and CIFST (2017).

As a lead or main author in peer-reviewed, high-impact publications, he contributed to Queen's University RAE on ‘root brain’ molecular soil-rhizosphere microbe signalling chemistry.

Other key, university-led research he participated in include study of gene transfer in soils while working in New Zealand; and beneficial microbial N, P management in soils and crop rhizosphere themes in Ireland.

At AFBI, JR led the EU-FP7 BIOFECTOR project (2012-2017) in collaboration with 27 EU partners, for developing environmentally safe, bio-fertilizers for soil and crop N, P management that has implications on carbon storage in soils.

He has led various projects in large-volume, animal farm-waste recycling into sustainable pelleted mineral fertilisers, molecular diagnostics and environmental pathology related to biomedical and public-health topics overarching human, animal, and soil/plant health remits.

JR is currently a principal investigator working on soil carbon in a widely publicised, DAERA-funded, £35M Soil Nutrient Health Scheme.

In 2019, Clare was inducted as Fellow of the Academy of Health and Medical Sciences and as a Fellow of the Nutrition Society of Australia. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of NSW and Dietitians Australia.

Clare’s expertise is in nutrition technologies, dietary assessment methods and interventions, nutrition epidemiology, evidence synthesis, and in clinical nutrition across the lifespan and in chronic disease. Her highly publicised and cited research has been instrumental in a dietary paradigm shift away from nutrients (fat, carbohydrate, sodium) to focus on food patterns and diet quality.

In 2017, Clare was awarded the prestigious Hunter Medical Research Institute 'Researcher of the Year' award and in 2019 she was awarded Hunter Children's Research Foundation Award for 'Research Mentor of the Year'.

In March 2022, Clare was awarded the 2021 NHMRC Elizabeth Blackburn Investigator Grant Award (Leadership in Clinical Medicine and Science) in recognition of being the highest-ranked, female Research Leadership applicant in the NHMRC 2021 Investigator Grant round.

In January 2023, Clare was awarded Officer (AO) of the Order of Australia (General Division) approved by the Governor-General of Australia.

He is responsible for his laboratory, which handles approx 7,500 samples per year, and for routine analysis of mycotoxins and other contaminants. This is within the frame of scientific co-operation but is also available as a service to industry.

Michael’s teaching activities focus on the laboratory courses for Analytical Chemistry and Instrumental Analytical Chemistry for undergraduate students. He also gives lectures within the course on Plant Metabolomics and within the Mycotoxin Summer Academy at his home institution.

Michael’s main interest is the analysis of multiple mycotoxins and other natural and anthropogenic contaminants by liquid chromatography coupled to tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS). He explores the limits of the latest generation of tandem mass spectrometers and considers the numbers of analytes that can be accommodated without compromising the accuracy and the precision of the methods. He also develops protocols for validation of LC-MS/MS based multi-analyte methods that take matrix effects into consideration.

Michael’s main goal is to provide this method to the scientific community as a tool for generating comprehensive occurrence data on mycotoxins and other fungal metabolites and on selected plant toxins.

In 2018 and 2019, Michael received the Clarivate 'Highly Cited Researcher' award and he received the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry's 'Research Article of the Year' award in 2021.

Andrew’s work focuses on applied research and development and capacity building in member nations of FAO and IAEA to improve their food safety and quality-control systems, with the goals of consumer protection and meeting standards to enable trade in food commodities.

His section’s work covers aspects such as the development of analytical methodology to help control residues, contaminants and adulterants in food; food authenticity; building resilience to crises and emergencies affecting the food supply; and sanitary and phytosanitary applications of food irradiation.

He is responsible for Joint FAO/IAEA Centre research and technology-transfer activities in more than 90 countries worldwide. Andrew is also an elected Fellow of the Institute of Food Science and Technology.

She took up her present position on returning from the USA in 2003, and is responsible for the Cultures, Fermentation and Biotransformation research programme at Teagasc.

Olivia’s work centres on harnessing the potential of microbes as tools for the development of food products and processes to improve our food experiences and to build circularity into the food system. Her research group had developed significant capabilities in strain discovery, characterisation and application. Her current research projects focus on the use of microbial fermentation for the valorisation of food processing waste streams and co-products.

Olivia has published >120 peer-reviewed articles (h-index: 43) and book chapters in the areas of the genomics and genetics of food cultures, foodomics, and the application of bacteriophages for the detection and control of foodborne pathogens.

Olivia is the Senior Editor for Dairy Foods at the Journal of Dairy Science, and an Editor with Frontiers in Virology. She is an Irish delegate at the International Dairy Federation and a serving member and former Deputy Chair of the International Dairy Federation’s Standing Committee on Microbiological Hygiene.

Peter’s research interests are Coupled Human-Natural Systems; Pathways of energy and mass transfer; Human impacts on environment; Climate change and social response; Long-term ecological research (LTER); Regulation of ecosystem structure and function; Variation as a system property; Social controls of biophysical environments; Paleolimnology and Paleoecology; Global cycles of major elements (C, N, P); Pollution ecology; Urbanization and the water cycle; Socio-economic trade-offs with ecosystem services; Centennial-scale effects of agricultural development; Regulation of primary production; Limnology and Aquatic Ecology; Environmental change; Disturbance; Regulation of food-web structure; Water; Lakes and Streams.

He is the co-recipient of the Zayed International Prize for the Environment and the Frank H. Rigler Memorial Award, Society of Canadian Limnologists.

Peter holds membership in the following Scientific Societies: Association for the Sciences of Limnology and Oceanography, British Ecological Society (BES), British Phycological Society (BPS), Canadian Society of Aquatic Sciences (CSAS), Canadian Society of Ecology and Evolution (CSEE), Canadian Society of Environmental Biologists (CSEB), Ecological Society of America (ESA), Geological Society of America (GSA), International Association for Great Lakes Research (IAGLR), International Palaeolimnology Association (IPA), International Association (INQUA), International Society of Limnology (SIL), Royal Society of Biology (RSB), Royal Society of Canada (RSC), Sigma Xi (SX), Society of Canadian Limnologists (SCL).

Since 2018, Franz has been the Editor-in-chief of the World Mycotoxin Journal and from 2020 to 2022, he served as the Chair of the Austrian Society of Toxicology.

Franz is currently leading the Biomarker Module of the Christian Doppler Laboratory for Innovative Gut Health Concepts of Livestock and is also co-ordinator of the European Doctoral Network BIOTOXDoc, which seeks to educate and train future food- and feed-safety experts.

As an analytical chemist, Franz is an expert on liquid chromatography coupled to mass spectrometry, including metabolomics. His research focuses mainly on food and feed safety, in particular on fungal contamination of cereals. This includes the determination of mycotoxins and their metabolites, the evaluation of their toxicity and also possible decontamination and mitigation strategies.

Franz has received numerous scientific awards throughout his career, including the Dr Brigitte Gedek Science Award 2006, the Fritz-Feigl-Award 2014 from the Austrian Society of Analytical Chemistry and the Appreciation Award of Lower Austria for Science in 2018.

In this field, Itzhak has made several discoveries that earned him a bacterial species named after him (Prevotella mizrahii) and the Schilo Prize for Outstanding Scientists from the Israeli Society of Microbiology.

Itzhak was elected as a Fellow of the European Academy of Microbiology; the American Academy of Microbiology; the National Academy of Sciences (Kavli Frontiers of Science) for exceptional young scientists; as well as the Israeli Young Academy of Science.

Itzhak serves as senior editor of journals in the field of microbial ecology, such as ISME Communications. At the national level, Itzhak serves as the Israeli Ambassador of the International Society of Microbial Ecology, where he promotes and strengthens the discipline of microbial ecology as broadly as possible, through a wide range of activities.

Christine moved to Bournemouth University as Dean of Science & Technology in 2015 and two years later took up the new position of Chief Scientist of the UK’s Joint Nature Conservation Committee. After retirement from JNCC at the end of 2022, Christine became a Non-Executive Director of the AIM-listed company Ocean Harvest, which makes a blended seaweed ingredient for animal diets, improving their health - principally by the effect of seaweeds on the microbiome.

Christine’s research focuses on molecular systematics of red and green seaweeds, particularly aliens, and the interface between marine conservation and sustainable seaweed exploitation. She has published over 120 peer-reviewed scientific papers and co-authored four books – two monographs of red algae in the Seaweeds of the British Isles series, one on green seaweeds and a popular Seasearch guide.

Christine was appointed as a Member of the Royal Irish Academy in 2013 and in 2014 received a lifetime Award of Excellence of the Phycological Society of America.

Ian became a member of Royal Irish Academy in 2005 and a Fellow of the Royal Society for Biology in 2010. He obtained a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Irish Association of Ecology and Evolution.

During his career, Ian produced over 240 publications, >200 in refereed journals, supervised >60 PhD students and obtained a grant income >£3.5M from UK Research Councils, UK and Republic of Ireland government and EU programmes.

Ian established Quercus Natural Heritage Research Partnership with the Northern Ireland Environment Agency, 2003-15, and was the Director of the same from 2003-08 and 2010-2015. He was the Co-founder of the Centre for Irish Bat Research.

Ian was the organiser of the 11th International Mammalogical Congress in Belfast, 2013, and he was on the Committee for Conservation and Countryside, DoE NI, 1998-2004, Climate Change and Candidature Committees RIA. Ian also sits on the Expert Advisory Group, Citizens Assembly on Biodiversity 2022.

Ian’s research focuses on population and community ecology; processes of invasion and impact of invasive alien species; ecology and human interactions with mammals; role of wild mammals in disease transmission; phylogeography, community and population ecology of bats; climate-change impacts and mitigation; effects of grazing, fire and peat extraction; ecology and behaviour of overwintering wildfowl; ecology of farmland, seed-eating birds, environmental impact assessment and biotope and community analyses in site monitoring and designation; landscape ecology and future of agriculture; hedges; environmental history of Ireland from 30,000 YBP onwards; pollen records meta-analyses; conservation biology of trees, insects, birds and mammals.

Ian has collaborated with colleagues in University College Dublin, Trinity College Dublin, University College Cork, Salford University, University of South Wales, University of Aberystwyth, University of Potsdam, Germany and University of Porto, Portugal.

Ian has done excellent work on the conservation, restoration and display of Queen’s University's zoological and geological museum collections.

Trevor is on the advisory board of an EU Horizon 2020 multi-actor research project, has acted as an assessor for the Abu Dhabi Department of Agriculture, advising on research-funding options, conducted several reviews for UK and Irish agrifood research organisations and is a DEFRA expert panel member. 

Trevor worked as a research scientist in AFBI, specialising in the agronomy, physiology, genetics and taxonomy of agricultural cultivars. He has held senior positions in statutory and advisory bodies in the UK, EU and internationally, concerning the release of new cultivars, was Head of AFBI Crossnacreevy and AFBI Hillsborough and Chief Seed Officer for Northern Ireland. To date he has published 188 peer-reviewed scientific papers, 45 Northern Ireland-recommended variety lists, 203 non-refereed scientific papers, book chapters, conference abstracts, posters, etc and 541 knowledge-transfer outputs, including 21 radio and TV broadcasts.

Trevor continues his research career into sustainable agrifood production systems through his PhD studentships and is also supporting the research initiatives within a leading fertilizer company, helping them to minimise their carbon footprint and that of their farmer customers.  He continues to publish his research and has recently been an invited speaker at several academic and industry fora.

Trevor came to Queen's as an undergraduate student in 1974 and following two primary degrees, B.Sc (Hons) in Botany and B.Agr (Hons) in Agricultural Botany, he continued as a PhD student while taking a permanent research post with the (then) Department of Agriculture’s Science Service (now AFBI). On completion of the PhD, he remained within the University as a lecturer. While progressing in his research and management roles in AFBI, he also progressed to senior lecturer and finally professor within the various evolutions of what began as the Faculty of Agriculture and Food Science and is now IGFS. Hence, he hopes that by autumn 2024 he will have completed 50 years of constantly working and studying within Queen's.

Trevor was made a Fellow of the Royal Agricultural Societies in April 2023 for his record of personal achievements and continuing service to agricultural science.

Gordon and his research team at AFBI and QUB have been central to the successful completion of over 20 externally-funded research projects at QUB, including coordination of 4 EU-funded projects.  They have transferred technology and expertise by reciprocal visits to laboratories in Norway, Sweden, Austria, Belgium, France, Switzerland, Italy, South Korea, USA, Canada, Countries in Eastern Europe and the Republic of Ireland. In addition, he has given consultancy advice to DEFRA and MLC, UK, the Norwegian Veterinary Service, the Swedish Veterinary service, the Austrian Veterinary service, the EU Commission, the FDA, USA, a number of commercial multinational companies involved in production of animal vaccines and diagnostics.

Gordon’s current research focuses on animal vaccines, antivirals, pig nutrition and viral infections of food animals. He is the co-inventor of commercial pig vaccines and antivirals for rotaviruses.

Gordon has numerous measures of esteems. He has over 200 peer-reviewed publications and is author of a chapter on PCVD in "Diseases of Swine" book; Co-ordinator of EU STREP and SSA on PCVD; a Reviewer for international journals including Virology, Journal of General Virology, Archives of Virology. He has also been an invited keynote speaker at international meetings.

Gordon was the Recipient of International Porco Bravo award at Italy’s Rassegna Suinicola for research activities on viral infections of swine.

Recent roles have included Head of Sustainable Livestock Systems, Livestock Genetics improvement Manager (AgriSearch) and Youngstock Scientist.

Steven’s research and development activity has included a wide range of topics related to improving the sustainability of livestock production systems. This work includes fundamental research into improving the health, nutrition, and management of farmed livestock through to the development of environmental life-cycle analysis and decision support tools. Steven has authored numerous peer-reviewed papers and is particularly focused on ensuring research outcomes deliver impact at farm level.

Steven was awarded Associate of Royal Agricultural Societies in 2019 and was selected as a trustee of the British Society of Animal Science in 2023. He is a Co-Lead of the Agri-Food Systems Cluster within the Queen's-AFBI Strategic Alliance and is the AFBI lead with the UK Centre of Innovation Excellence in Livestock (CIEL).

The work on resolution of animal contests has been highly influential and was largely funded by three BBSRC awards. One study was featured on the front page of Nature and a review featured in Scientific American. Other programs were funded by four SERC and three NERC awards. However, it is the work on pain that received most public attention and several publications resulted in considerable international television, radio, and newspaper coverage. This work resulted in RSPCA and British Veterinary Association changing their position about possible sentience in crustaceans and legal changes have occurred in the UK, Switzerland and Australia.

Bob was elected as the President of the Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour (ASAB) (1998-2000) and the Convenor of the UK delegation to the International Council of Ethologists (1983-2018).

He was awarded the ASAB medal for achievements in Animal Behaviour (2007) and was elected to the Royal Irish Academy in 2008. He received the RSPCA / British Association for Animal Science award for “Innovative Developments in Animal Welfare (2018) and the Universities Federation for Animal Welfare (2024) medal for “Outstanding Contributions to Animal Welfare Science.” UFAW Chief Executive, said: “Professor Elwood has made an exceptional contribution to animal welfare science. More specifically, his research on pain in decapod crustaceans has greatly enhanced our understanding of this important topic and has been pivotal in enshrining their welfare in law. His career and achievements epitomise science in the service of animal welfare, making him a truly worthy recipient of this award.”

Since 2014 she has served as an external expert in many working groups of the European Food Safety Authority, being a co-author of eight scientific opinions and several technical reports.

Chiara is highly dedicated to mentoring the next generation of food safety experts. She has co-chaired several international schools for pre- and post-doctoral Fellows, and she has actively contributed to the creation of the International MSc Program in Food Safety and Food Risk Management at her home university.

Her primary field of research is related to natural toxins and phytochemicals, with a focus on the formation, stability, and biotransformation of mycotoxins, and on the chemical mechanisms underlying their toxicological activity. Recently, she’s moved towards the use of computational toxicology and alternative methods to the investigation of molecular mechanisms responsible for the biological activities of (multiple) chemicals.

Chiara has enlarged her scientific interest in the field of food fraud, through the application of advanced non-targeted methodologies (imaging-MS, ion mobility MS, ambient MS) to food fingerprinting and markers identification. Currently she is mainly involved in the safety assessment of novel foods from plant origin and in the authentication of herbal supplements and botanicals.

Chiara has an extensive track record of industry-academia works and has received fundings through several competitive international projects. Her research work has been featured in top international journals in the field.

She is an expert in bacteriophage biology with over 150 published papers and an H index of 47. Over the last 15 years, Martha has pioneered studies of developing phages, phage-based technologies and therapeutics for humans and animals. 

Martha's work and that of the Centre encompasses all aspects of phage therapy development – from unravelling fundamental biology to product development, and commercialization. Much of her research employs genomic, structural, bioinformatic and AI approaches to identify key traits associated with phage efficacy in clearing infections. 

Currently she is developing phages for major gut pathogens including clostridial and Salmonella species that cause problems both in humans and animals, for respiratory pathogens and for antibiotic-resistant bacteria that cause urinary tract infections including multi drug resistant E. coli and Klebsiella.

Martha's work is regularly and recently featured on the BBC, for example, In Our Time, the Life Scientific and the Infinite Monkey Cage’, Bacteria: the tiny Giants and the Today Programme.