Veronica Faith Guwela, from Malawi, is a dual PhD student at University of Nottingham (UoN)-Rothamsted Research (RRes) in the UK, and Lilongwe University of Agriculture and Natural Resources (LUANAR) in Malawi. She focuses on exploiting the wider genetic variation among wheat and wild relatives to identify novel sources for increased grain zinc and iron concentration, and transfer these to African varieties. She uses a combination of whole genome sequencing, Kasp genotyping and genomic in situ hybridisation to track the wild segments in the introgression lines, and uses inductively coupled mass spectrometry to determine the mineral concentration of both the wild relatives and the introgression lines. Her PhD supervisors are Julie King (UoN), Martin Broadley (RRes/UoN), Malcolm Hawkesford (RRes), and Moses Maliro and James Bokosi (LUANAR). She received her BSc in Agronomy and MSc plant breeding from LUANAR. Veronica is also a 2015 fellow of the African Women in Agriculture Research and Development (AWARD).

Education:

• BSc Agronomy and MSc Plant breeding, University of Malawi, Bunda College of Agriculture (currently called Lilongwe University of Agriculture and Natural Resources)