Presentation: Miscanspeed

In this presentation given at the Biomass Connect Showcase on 7th November 2024, Kerrie Farrar outlines the Miscanspeed project.

Kerrie graduated in 1996 with a Plant Sciences degree from the University of Edinburgh. She obtained a PhD in Plant Molecular Biology from the University of Durham (2000) and spent three years (2000-2003) as a postdoc at Aberystwyth University.

Kerrie has worked at IBERS(previously IGER) since January 2004; as a postdoc (2004-2007), a BBSRC Institute Career Path Fellow (2007-2013), Research Group leader for Energy Crop Biology (2011-2016), Theme leader for Agricultural Sciences & the BioEconomy (2018-2022) and as Institute Strategic Program lead for Resilient Crops (2023-present).

She has been a Fellow of the Royal Society of Biology (FRSB) since 2014. Research in her lab aims to understand plant genomics, plant development and plant-microbe interactions, with a focus on the energy grass Miscanthus. Miscanthus is a perennial C4 grass which grows to a height of several metres every year, even in temperate climates, providing an annual biomass crop for over 15 years. Increasing biomass yield, under a changing climate, is essential in order to sequester carbon and to replace petroleum-based energy, liquid transport fuels, and bulk chemicals.