Gudbjorg Inga Aradottir
Dr. Gia (Gudbjorg Inga) Aradottir received her BSc from the University of Iceland, MSc from Royal Holloway, University of London and a PhD from Imperial College London, all in Biology. Her research has focused on insect behavior, taxonomy, ecology and population genetics, and previous work experience includes working at the Natural History Museum in London, BioNet International and the Icelandic Institute of Natural History, before joining the Department of Biological Chemistry and Crop Protection at Rothamsted Research, UK. She is a keen science communicator and has been interviewed in local, national and international press, as well as giving regular talks to students, interest groups and stakeholders. Crop protection is an integral component of safeguarding the yield potential of our crops, which in turn is closely linked with food security. This, coupled with a keen interest in entomology, has formed Dr Aradottir’s research interests in the areas of insect-plant interactions, insect pest behavior and management in agro-ecosystems. At the mechanistic level, studying plant responses to insect pests and how they are able to defend themselves helps us elucidate resistance traits in plants, whilst field trials looking at insect host location, population build up and effect on the plant is an integral component of ensuring identified resistance traits work under field conditions. The end goal is to identify beneficial traits which can be translated into elite crop varieties and be useful in an agricultural context.