Damian Bienkowski

I am a post-doctoral researcher currently employed within the Innovate UK funded project “In-Field Optical Detection of Potato Disease (Poptical)”. As such it is my role to design, establish, maintain and perform plant disease diagnostics on field and greenhouse trials that aim to determine which diseases of potato plants can be detected (and differentiated) by proximal sensing technologies such as UAV-captured imagery and field spectrometry.

It is exciting to be working in a project that will contribute to the growing use of technologies in farming that aim to help optimise pest and disease control solutions to reduce both the economic burden on farmers, and the environmental costs of certain disease control strategies.

I am also a member of the IPM@Hutton steering group, the aim of which is to showcase the breadth of IPM research and expertise at the James Hutton Institute, foster collaborations with national and international research partners and promote the uptake of Integrated Pest and Disease Management (IPM) solutions within agriculture. For more information on IPM@Hutton please visit our website.

Prior to starting my current role, my area of research was biological control of soil-borne diseases. Therefore I have expertise in the design, running and analysis of disease severity bioassays in several pathosystems, and in the assessment of a broad range of potentially beneficial microorganisms for the capacity to reduce the impact of plant diseases.

Overall I enjoy being involved in research into novel solutions to economically important crop disease problems.