Young Researcher Spotlight: Lucy Alford
“When I grow up I want to be Jimmy Page or Emma Peel”. Unfortunately for me, one of those options involved a dragon emblazoned satin suit and a doubleneck Gibson SG and the other, a Lotus Elan and a charming English Gentleman for a sidekick. I therefore settled upon a somewhat more realistic life plan and instead obtained a degree in Natural Sciences from the University of Cambridge. It was during my time at Cambridge that my love for all things creepy crawly developed. I focused both my undergraduate projects on the damselfly Calopteryx splendens under the kind supervision of Doctors William Foster and Farnon Ellwood, and spent many happy summer months waist deep in the River Usk in South Wales studying dragonfly mating behaviour.
I quickly learnt that a career in entomology was for me, and so I embarked on a PhD at the University of Birmingham under the supervision of Professor Jeff Bale. My project was concerned with the pest aphid Myzus persicae and how its thermal tolerance varied throughout Europe. Since this aphid may exist as distinct asexual clones, each possessing unique thermal tolerance traits, as well as characteristics of insecticide resistance, this research provided information on how climate change could differentially affect clonal survival. In turn, this information has implications for the efficacy of insecticide treatment depending on the clonal dominance within a population. Jeff Bale was, and still is, a great source of inspiration to me, not to mention one of life’s great raconteurs. His wildly funny and amusing anecdotes meant that there was never a dull moment in the Bale Lab; tales involving stolen tractors, Roger Daltrey, (and, a personal favourite of mine) a case of mistaken identity following a hunting trip during the fearful reign of the Yorkshire Ripper.
Continuing on from my PhD, I was successfully awarded a Marie Curie IEF Fellowship to work with Professors Joan van Baaren and Françoise Burel at the University of Rennes I in France. Here, the research of my Fellowship built upon my background in entomology and pest control and was concerned with disentangling the relative effects of climatic conditions and landscape on the natural enemies of aphids in cereal fields. I was particularly interested in how we can better inform landscape management techniques to safeguard natural biological control in a changing climate (and, in my spare time, the relative merits of Champagne versus Vouvray).
Eager to expand my area of expertise in pest control, I was attracted to my current position here at the University of Glasgow which sees me perform research as a member of the Dow/Davies lab group and the wider Horizon 2020 funded research consortium nEUROSTRESSPEP. This research provides an exciting opportunity to address issues of pest control from a novel endocrinological direction and aims to develop ‘greener’ and more target-specific insecticidal agents utilising the insects own neuropeptide hormone.
Outside of my scientific pursuits, I like to keep my life as creative and active as possible. When I am not trekking in the Himalayas, Denali or my beloved Wales, I can be found indulging in some Egon Schiele inspired painting, or channelling my inner Wes Wilson and designing psychedelic gig posters for my rock-guitarist boyfriend who I was fortunate to marry in March of this year at Partrishow Church amid the Welsh Black Mountains.
If you would like to know more about my research and recent publications, you can visit my website at www.drlucyalford.weebly.com.
