All the food humans eat comes directly or indirectly from plants. It is a great cross-disciplinary challenge to understand the fundamentals of how plants grow and interact with the environment. It does not overstate the case to say that human life and health hinge on the many processes taking place where plant roots make contact with soil. We are seeking a PhD student to apply cutting-edge engineering imaging technologies in order to reveal the interactions of plant root systems and their growth environments, from the soil-pore scale to the scale of the entire plant. This will be achieved by applying four-dimensional (3D space + time), multi-scale X-ray Computed Tomography to non-destructively visualise root development, along with the corresponding physical soil and water dynamics. The application of medical contrast agents to imaging of plant/soil interactions will be explored, particularly for the imaging of very large samples (~30cm diameter). As part of an integrated engineering sciences team, our aim is to develop a fully-optimised workflow for 4D plant imaging, integrated into corresponding chemical analysis and computational simulation development.

Southampton has world-class facilities for this work. The μVIS Centre for Computed Tomography hosts a suite of state-of-the-art X-ray CT scanners, including a custom 250kV/450kV hutch for large sample scanning (up to 1m diameter and 100kg), a 225kV Nikon HMX-ST for medium size samples (1-10 cm), a ZEISS Xradia 510 Versa X-ray Microscope for <1 μm imaging, as well as access to synchrotron beam-time at international facilities. The School of Electronics and Computer Science provides access to a world-leading digital image processing methodologies. Access to the UK University Sector’s most powerful supercomputer (Irisdis4) is available for particularly demanding computational applications.

If you wish to discuss any details of the project informally, please contact Tiina Roose of Bioengineering Sciences Research Group, Email: t.roose<στο>soton.ac.uk or Sam Keyes, Email: S.D.Keyes<στο>soton.ac.uk.