mike birkett

Science

Dr Mike Birkett

Chemical Ecologist

Translating Biotic Interactions

PUBLICATIONS
Location
Rothamsted Research, Harpenden, AL5 2JQ
Tel
+44 (0) 1582 938205
Email
mike.birkett@rothamsted.ac.uk
Professional Platforms
Twitter
LinkedIn
ORCID
ResearchGate
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Biography

Mike is Deputy Lead of the Translating Biotic Interactions science team and co‑leads the Growing Health Institute Strategic Programme. He has more than 30 years’ experience studying chemical communication in crop–insect pest, pathogen and weed (IPPW) interactions, and applying this knowledge to improve agricultural sustainability and resilience while reducing chemical inputs. He is Principal Chemical Ecologist at Rothamsted, where he leads a multidisciplinary research group that translates real‑world agricultural interactions into laboratory studies of IPPW functional biology, using functional assays, bio‑analytical chemistry, high‑field NMR spectroscopy, molecular biology and chemical biology.

Current research interests include:

  • Product development, including scaling and field validation of novel interventions
  • Microbiota‑mediated crop–IPPW interactions
  • Linking chemical signals to crop and IPPW genotypes
  • Tools to understand chemical communication in IPPWs

Awards

  • 1994 - PhD Synthetic Organic Chemistry, Novel Aspects of Benzyne Chemistry, University of Nottingham, UK
  • 1990 - BSc Biochemistry & Biological Chemistry, (2:1 Honours), University of Nottingham, UK

Measures of Esteem

Member of the BBSRC Pool of Experts

Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry

Chartered Chemist, Royal Society of Chemistry

Member of the American Chemical Society, the Phytochemical Society of Europe, The International Society for Chemical Ecology, The Latin American Association of Chemical Ecology

Editorial Board, Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution (Review Editor for Chemical Ecology) and Chemistry Central Journal (Founding Editor)

Referee for a range of journals and grant-awarding bodies

Supervisor for UK and overseas PhD students

Conference convener and scientific programme committee member

External PhD examiner for UK and overseas Universities Plenary

Keynote speaker at UK and overseas conferences