Belowground carbon allocation in wheat populations

Supervisor: Martin Lukac

School: School of Agriculture Policy & Development
Department: Biodiversity Crops & Agro Eco-Systems

Rooting depth and branching pattern in wheat determine the resource uptake capacity and ultimately the resilience of the crop, a factor sharply put into focus by predicted climate change.

Chemical Detection of Biogenic Volatile Organic Compound (BVOC) Emissions from Novel Alternatives for Green Roof Planting: Bridging Atmospheric Chemistry and Plant Biology

Supervisor: Dr Christian Pfrang (Co-Investigator: Dr Tijana Blanusa)

School: School of Chemistry Food & Pharmacy
Department: Chemistry

The project will take forward recently published research on plant species that are likely to provide better ecosystem services on green roofs than traditionally used Sedums and grasses. We will address the knowledge gap in characterization and quantification of the BVOC emissions from these alternative plant species in a truly cross-disciplinary approach bringing together the supervisors’ expertise in plant biology and atmospheric chemistry.

Communication disorders in the ancient world

Supervisor: Prof. Peter Kruschwitz

School: School of Humanities
Department: Classics

This project will assemble and assess the evidence for language-related disorders in the ancient world.

Conservation of Endangered Snakes and Skinks in Mauritius using Wireless Identification and Sensing

Supervisor: Eur Ing Dr R Simon Sherratt

School: School of Systems Engineering
Department: None

This project will develop two prototype tag readers to monitor and conserve endangered reptiles of Mauritius and send the data back to Reading wirelessly for analysis. Furthermore, the devices are to be deployed in Jersey Zoo under the Durrell Wildlife & Conservation Trust

Country childhood in twentieth-century rural England: perceptions and experiences

Supervisor: Dr Jeremy Burchardt

School: School of Humanities
Department: History

This placement will assess and analyze MERL's unique collection of rural autobiographies as part of a larger project on childhood and the countryside in twentieth-century England.

Detecting Contaminants in Food: terahertz measurements

Supervisor: John Bowen

School: School of Systems Engineering
Department: None

Contribute to the development of a commercial system to automatically detect the presence of contaminants in food. Design and conduct experiments to measure the terahertz transmission and reflection of typical food materials, packaging and contaminants.

Developing measures of word knowledge and reading experience that span the primary school years

Supervisor: Dr Jessie Ricketts

School: Institute of Education
Department: None

The research will involve using psychological approaches to reading development to develop a measure of word knowledge and reading experience.