Alison Reed
Alison Reed joined the group in 2010 after completing a Zoology degree at the University of Durham and a Master's at Nottingham. She is currently looking at both how and why some plants produce structural colour. Structural colouration occurs as a result of the interaction between light and the physical nature of a surface. Colours that are produced in this way are typically much brighter than pigment colours and are widely used among animals for species recognition and mate selection. Structural colours have only recently been discovered in plants and so are very poorly documented and understood. Over the course of her PhD Alison will attempt to characterise the incidence of structural colour in the earliest diverging angiosperms. She will also investigate the functional significance of structural colour with respect to pollinator behaviour.
Contact:
- Email: Alison.Reed@plantsci.cam.ac.uk
- Tel: 01223 (3)33934
