
28 July 2023
Head of Ecosystem Stewardship
My current role is to lead and drive forward Kew’s science and conservation via helping to deliver its science and collections strategies. In so doing I will strengthen its position as a global resource for plant and fungal knowledge, and promote plant and fungal-based solutions to current global challenges.
My personal research is primarily on the tuberous yams (Dioscorea), and Enset (Ensete). Yams provides both dietary starch for millions and secondary compounds of considerable economic importance. Enset is a key starch staple for 20 million people in southern Ethiopia, as well as providing a broad range of further ecosystem services and having the potential to be a climate smart crop with a major role in the future of Africa. Approaches encompass taxonomy, systematics, conservation and metabolomics, including phylogenomic and population genetics to investigate crop, crop wild relative and edible/wild yam diversity with a view to improved livelihoods and economic innovation.
Filloux, D., Murrell, S., Koohapitagtam, M., Golden, M., Julian, C., Galzi, S., Uzest, M., Rodier-Goud, M., D'Hont, A., Vernerey, M.S., Wilkin, P., Peterschmitt, M., Winter, S., Murrell, B., Martin, D.P. & Roumagnac, P. (2015)
Virus Evolution 2015 1 (1): vev002.
Viruel, J., Segarra-Moragues, J., Raz, L., Forest, F., Wilkin, P., Sanmartín, I & Catalán, P. (2016)
Journal of Biogeography 43: 750–762.
Price, E.J., Wilkin, P., Sarasan, V. & Fraser, P.D. (2016)
Scientific Reports 6:29136.
Maurin, O., Muasya, A.M., Catalan, P., Shongwe, E.Z., Viruel, J., Wilkin, P. & van der Bank, M. (2016)
BMC Evolutionary Biology 16: 238.
Viruel, J., Forest, F., Paun, O., Chase, M.W., Devey, D., Couto, R.S., Segarra-Moragues, J.G., Catalan, P. & Wilkin, P. (2018)
Bot. J. Linn. Soc. 187: 232–246.