samantha cook

Science

Dr Samantha Cook

Behavioural Ecologist

Agroecosystem Health and Pest Management

PUBLICATIONS
Location
Rothamsted Research, Harpenden, AL5 2JQ
Tel
+44 (0) 1582 938 488
Email
sam.cook@rothamsted.ac.uk
Professional Platforms
ORCID
Associated Websites

Biography

Samantha Cook is a behavioural ecologist who studies insects to develop integrated pest management tools that help farmers manage crop pests in ways that reduce insecticide use and support healthier ecosystems. Outbreaks of pest insects can devastate crops, increase costs, and drive reliance on synthetic chemicals.  Sam helps protect yields by developing improved monitoring methods to detect infestations earlier, and by harnessing pest regulation via predatory and parasitic natural enemies (conservation biocontrol). This involves understanding how pests find crops, move through fields, and how pests and their natural enemies respond to different crop management practices. She and her team aim to design farm habitats which suppress populations of pest insects, while boosting beneficials and biodiversity.  

Sam has a wide knowledge of the pest ecology of arable crops with particular interest in oilseed rape (OSR), and in control of cabbage stem flea beetle (CSFB). Her team holds a continuous culture of CSFB and its parasitic natural enemy which are used in lab-to-field trials investigating next-generation products for sustainable control.  

Key topics:

  • Automated detection and identification of insects  
  • Bioassays to assess novel control products – from lab to field scale
  • Conservation biological control – understanding predator/parasitoid -prey – habitat interactions  
  • Insect monitoring for regenerative agriculture – how agronomy and management impact pests, natural enemies and biodiversity
  • Oilseed rape
  • Cabbage stem flea beetle (Psylliodes chrysocephala)

Strategic Programme

  • Achieving Sustainable Agricultural Systems (ASSIST)

Science Projects

  • Validation of an integrated pest management IPM strategy for pollen beetle to minimise the development of insecticide resistance

PhD Projects

  • Modelling the temporal and spatial ecology of the oilseed rape pest Meligethes aeneus; implications for integrated pest management strategies
  • Quantifying the impacts of the neonicotinoid restriction on oilseed rape pest control, pollination and productivity
  • Developing a trait-based predictive framework for assessing trade-offs and synergies in natural pest control and pollination services in arable systems

Awards

  • 2000 - PhD Life Science, University of Nottingham
  • 1996 - MSc Crop Protection (with distinction), University of Aberdeen / Scottish Agricultural College
  • 1993 - BSc (Hons.) Applied Biological Sciences, The Manchester Metropolitan University

Measures of Esteem

  • Present - Inaugural member of the BCPC
  • Active member of IOBC
  • Present - Editor of IOBC Bulletins on Integrated Control in Oilseed Crop
  • 2015 - Invited Keynote at the 14th International Rapeseed Congress, Saskatoon, Canada: IPM of insects in Canola
  • 2014 - Royal Horticultural Society Silver Medal Award at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show for an exhibit on my work in the Discovery Zone: Petals & Pests