My research focusses upon the connection between genotype and phenotype to dissect the genetic control of complex economically important traits such as the various parameters of malting quality in barley. Dr Thomas is the manager of the Scottish Government funded Work Package 1.1 – Barley Genetics[1] which focusses upon the development of tools and resources to deliver improvements in the sustainability in Scottish (and UK) barley production.
Interact with all facets of the barley industry in these objectives, such as seed companies and representatives of the brewing and distilling industries and was instrumental in the formation of the consortium of plant breeders, end-users and academic partners in the recently funded BBSRC LINK project 'Association Genetics of Elite UK Barley'.
The James Hutton Institute lead PI on the Defra LINK project 'Genetic Reduction of Energy use and Emissions of Nitrogen through cereal production: GREEN grain'.
Previously led a successful LINK project aimed at identifying the genetic control of characters specific to the distilling industry and was the SCRI lead PI in a BBSRC/SEERAD funded collaborative project 'Development of robust, broad-based QTL maps to improve barley breeding' with the National Institute of Agricultural Botany and Heriot Watt University.
Was a co-PI on the EU INCO-MED project 'Mapping Adaptation of Barley to Droughted Environments' and an HGCA funded project 'Causes and control of endosperm exposure in barley'.
Have been instrumental in the uptake of two diagnostic markers for use in marker-assisted barley breeding – one for resistance to the Barley Yellow Mosaic complex and the other for non-production of epiheterodendrin.
Currently working with BSPB and CEL in the use of the former in candidate selection for UK recommended list trials.
Nearly 30 years research experience in cereals, I have published a number of papers in refereed journals and supervised post-graduate research projects.
Other Activities
Scottish Society of Crop Research Cereals Sub-committee (Member).