People

Alex Twyford is a NERC independent Research Fellow at the University of Edinburgh. He is studying hybrid speciation, and the genetic basis of species differences, in British Euphrasia. He is also developing genetic resources for evolutionary studies of Euphrasia. He is particularly interested in British hybrids, and putative hybrid species. He is the first point of contact for Euphrasia collaborations, and website enquiries.

Chris Metherell is a botanist that lives in Northumberland. He is the UK Euphrasia referee, Vice-County recorder for North Northumberland (VC68), and author of the (soon to be completed) BSBI Euphrasia handbook. You can follow his Twitter Handle @EyebrightChris. He is our resident Euphrasia expert, and our go-to person for Euphrasia taxonomic queries. He also organises the Euphrasia study group, and organises training workshops.

 Max Brown is a second year PhD student at the University of Edinburgh, studying the evolution of Euphrasia. Having a background in British natural history, his attention is now turned to botany, and Euphrasia. He is interested broadly in the parasitism and evolution of Euphrasia, especially how Euphrasia is influenced by different hosts, the origins of the tetraploid taxa, the genomics of hybrid species and breeding systems in Euphrasia. On twitter as @max_wildlife. 

Xumei Wang is an Associate Professor from Xi'an Jiaotong University in China. During her one-year visit to the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh (2014/2015), she is working with Alex Twyford and Peter Hollingsworth to DNA barcode the British Euphrasia flora. This is a case study for the efficacy of DNA barcodes in taxonomically complex groups.

Fred Rumsey is a herbarium taxonomist and field botanist at the Natural History Museum, London. He is a co-author on the Euphrasia handbook, and will be providing the illustrations and photographs.

We collaborate with Richard Ennos (University of Edinburgh) and Peter Hollingsworth (Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh).