About Eu-Sol
Find out more about this project.
An introduction to the aims of EU-SOL and how we plan to achieve them. Plus read about the organisations and people working on this project.
Dr. Sandra Knapp
Sandy in Panamanian high altitude oak forest
Photographer: Unknown. Copyright free
Organisation: Natural History Museum
Job title: Individual Merit Researcher, Global Biodiversity
What do you do?
In EU-SOL I lead the work package focusing on public engagement and outreach. This involves looking at the research of the consortium and linking it to other research on Solanaceae that is not specifically plant breeding or crop improvement in nature, such as biodiversity research or botanical exploration and history.
How did you get involved in the project?
I am passionately interested in linking studies of biodiversity with the emerging field of genomics. It is only through developing a broad and inclusive view of pant biology that we will be able to both take advantage of new technologies and conserve the diversity of plant life on earth. I became involved in EU-SOL through the SOL initiative, an umbrella group whose current major focus in the sequencing of the tomato genome. I was co-chair of SOL for several years with Dani Zamir.
What do you hope to achieve by the end of this project?
I hope to have raised the awareness of the importance and relevance of the research of the consortium in the general European public, and linked this research to the long and interesting history of plant breeding and domestication. I also hope to have raised awareness of issues facing the conservation of plant diversity worldwide in those working the consortium, and if we really do well, we will have some projects going where we are combining genomics and biodiversity to good effect!
Pieces of me
What do you currently have on your bedside table?
A loud alarm clock and the book Whisperers by Orlando Figes, plus an assortment of odds and ends too chaotic to mention.
What brings you back to the real world at the end of the day?
A long journey on the London Underground – the people-watching is great!
How do you sleep at night?
Soundly, except when a deadline is looming – then I toss and turn.
If you weren’t yourself which person (historical or otherwise) would you most like to be?
Jane Austen or perhaps Marco Polo.
What’s the best bit of advice you’ve ever received?
Publish when the work is ready, not when it’s perfect.
If you were an instrument what would you be?
A viola, nice but a bit off the wall.
What’s one exciting thing that has happened to you in the course of your work?
Finding a new species of Solanum in the rainforests of Peru – what a thrill! I named it for my husband – Solanum malletii
What would be your one desert island luxury?
A pile of books (does that count as one thing?)
What’s one thing about science you wish the public understood better?
That science is never certain and that we do not “prove” things.
A friend has just invited themselves to dinner, what will they be getting?
Oh dear – probably a salad or maybe some lentil stew.
If you had a megaphone what would you be shouting from the roof tops?
Be happy – love life!
What’s just around the corner?
Who knows, that is why life is so exciting...
