Dr John Clarkson - BSPP Webmanager

John Clarkson

John Clarkson began a career in plant pathology after a degree in Agricultural Science from Leeds University led him to a years research on biological control of onion white rot at Horticulture Research International (HRI) followed by a PhD on biological control of cereal eyespot disease with John Lucas at Nottingham University.

John returned to HRI at Wellesbourne in 1993 to take up a post involving epidemiology and disease forecasting projects on a variety of diseases including onion leaf blight, leek rust as well as dark leaf spot, white blister and ringspot of vegetable brassicas. Subsequently research focussed on the epidemiology of onion downy mildew and leek rust. In November 1999, John changed research groups in order to return to work on biological control of onion white rot and also investigate aspects of Sclerotinia disease epidemiology on lettuce with John Whipps. Currently, John is working on molecular and biological approaches to understanding the diversity of Sclerotinia sclerotiorum in the UK within the Warwick Crop Centre, part of the School of Life Sciences at the University of Warwick.

John has been a member of the BSPP since his PhD days at Nottingham but has become more involved with the society by helping Adrian Newton with the BSPP website in 1998 and then taking over as Webmanager in 1999. John is however keen to hear from all plant pathologists and scientists  wanting to promote their interests via the internet and can be contacted at webmanager@bspp.org.uk.