Natasha Louise de Vere

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Associate Professor & Curator of Botany, Head of Section for Botany

Natasha de Vere is a biodiversity scientist dedicated to the conservation of plants and pollinators. She uses a combination of genomic approaches, field research and museum collections to answer questions in plant ecology, plant-pollinator interactions and community composition. She is interested in combining genomic tools with computer vision and machine learning to accelerate the use of herbarium and museum collections for biodiversity conservation. Previous research includes leading the projects that DNA barcoded the floras of Wales and the UK and pioneering the use of pollen DNA metabarcoding for applications ranging from pollinator visitation to aerial pollen forecasting for human health.

Public engagement with science is a key part of her work, especially using art-science to explore scientific ideas. She is passionate about the social role of Museums and Botanic Gardens and has led several, major, interdisciplinary projects, dedicated to increasing the health and well-being of people, biodiversity and the environment.

Her current research projects investigate:

• Plant diversity patterns and pollination networks in Arctic ecosystems.
• The impacts of horticultural and agricultural landscapes on plant-pollinator interactions.
• The use of eDNA to assess grassland community composition.