Future Fields Research Hub

Jason Brook is an experienced technician based in the National Plant Phenomics Centre based at IBERS. He is a specialist in autonomous drone-based AgriTech and his work includes:

• leading UAV-based monitoring programmes across agricultural and coastal landscapes
• delivering high-resolution LiDAR and multispectral analytics for biomass, habitat and land-use assessment
• designing and deploying LoRaWAN sensor networks for real-time environmental intelligence
• advancing precision drone-based fertiliser and seeding systems for low-input farming
• building industry-academic partnerships to accelerate scalable, data-driven land management solutions

Dr Rhys Jones is a researcher and a lecturer in Livestock and Environmental Science at the University’s Department of Life Sciences. His research includes: 

• developing sustainable parasite control techniques so that livestock producers and animal specialists are able to plan more effective parasite control strategies
• focusing on liver fluke, rumen fluke, intermediate snail host Galba truncatulaand gastrointestinal nematodes of cattle and sheep
• using environmental DNA (eDNA) analysis, deep amplicon sequencing, spatial and temporal modelling, traditional parasitology methods, and precision livestock technology

Fred Labrosse is a researcher and senior lecturer in the University’s Department of Computer Science. His research interests focus on robotics and image processing/machine vision for robotics, specifically in the area of autonomous, off-road navigation. Dr Labrosse is also the Lead of ANTUR (Aberystwyth Natural Terrain for Unconstrained Robotics) and his work includes:

• developing autonomous mobile robotics for outdoor environments
• enabling robots to navigate complex, natural terrain and tracks
• providing expertise in vision-led navigation, integrated with GNSS, IMUs and LiDAR
• researching route description methods (beyond fixed coordinates) for robust real-world deployment

Dr Hannah Vallin is a molecular ecologist at the Institute of Biological, Environmental and Rural Sciences (IBERS) at Aberystwyth University. She specialises in:

• DNA metabarcoding and environmental DNA (eDNA) applications for agricultural and environmental research.
• using molecular tools to assess grassland biodiversity, sward species composition, and plant–animal interactions, supporting the development of more resilient and sustainable agricultural systems.

applying advanced sequencing technologies to improve understanding of grassland ecosystems and their responses to environmental change, as part of the BBSRC Resilient Crops programme