Paul Chaibva

Background

I am a highly skilled, talented and competent professional with a diverse corporate background. A team player with a strong academic and farming background. Experienced in collaborative work, conducting and analysing research data involving plants.

Research opportunities

I have research interests in high throughput phenotyping technologies like x-ray computed tomography and high resolution microscopy to understand crop growth processes .

I have also standing interests in molecular genetics, keen in unveiling transcriptomics and QTL for crop improvement.

I also have interests in soil mechanics, soil-water relations, soil chemistry, soil structure and texture and how they influence crop growth and development.

I also have interests in seed and crop physiology trying to understand how plants behave under mechanical impedance and other stresses and how to break seed dormancy under different environmental stresses.

Current activities

I am currently working on a PhD research project entitled ''Breaking new grounds: using x-rays to understand how roots penetrate parent rock materials''. In this multi-faceted project we will deploy x-ray computed tomography, a high throughput phenotyping technology to decipher important root traits that enable plants to penetrate different soil parent material. In this project we will also seek to decipher the chemical, physical and biological changes that occurs as roots cross different soil formation boundaries. We will also try to understand the plant transcriptome landscape that confers plants the ability to penetrate different parent rock material.

Publications

• Articles in journals