John Nunns

Areas of expertise

• Plants and microbes
• Soil

Background

John Nunns obtained his bachelors degree from the University of Nottingham, in the subject of International Agricultural science. The final year dissertation was titled 'Soil as a common good: implications for Post-brexit policy'. This looked into the conflicting attitudes to soil management in policy and how this has led to the state of soil health today.

John remained at Nottingham, Pursuing a Masters by research. The title of this work was 'Sustainable Intensification of UK Agriculture: Concepts and Application'.The research looked into greenhouse gas emissions from UK cereal farms, comparing output data, both wanted and unwanted. This was performed using data provided by the Farm Business Survey and the Sustainable Intensification research Platform. The project was funded by the Felix Cobbold trust and the Morley agricultural foundation.

The importance of soils to the UK agricultural industry, guided him to pursue a career in soil sciences, continuing at Cranfield University.

Current activities

John has joined Cranfield University to pursue a PhD in Environment and Agrifood. The title of which is 'Improving degradation studies of crop protection products: maintaining soil structure, microbial functioning and rhizosphere effects, to reflect natural conditions'. He is a part of the 2021 cohort of the FoodBioSystems DTP and in partnership with Syngenta.