Tom is an experienced researcher and lecturer in environmental microbiology and agricultural sciences. Working closely with farmers, landowners and estate stakeholders, he has produced large scale multi field manipulative experiments to address changes in land management strategy, soil carbon content and carbon sequestration for sustainable agriculture, with detailed investigations into mycorrhizal community dynamics.

Tom has more than 11 years’ experience in microbiology and has a specialist interest in mycorrhiza, molecular, environmental and agricultural microbiology and microbial genetics. During this time, Tom has been an active journal reviewer for over 30 journals and is currently a guest editor for several special issues in environmental microbiome dynamics. He also delivers lectures, laboratory workshops, and field work for the University of Hertfordshire with undergraduate and postgraduate students studying environmental management and sustainability, soil sciences, and agricultural sciences. Tom is also an independent researcher of agricultural sciences with recent studies focussing on the acquisition of antimicrobial resistant bacterial from livestock manure and its influence within the environment. 

Tom has a Master of Science in Human Biology from Staffordshire University and a PhD in the Comparison of Tillage Techniques on Selected Soil Microbes Within the Rhizosphere of Wheat from the University of Hertfordshire. Tom has previously worked within DEFRA studying forestry and symbiotic mycorrhiza before focusing on the development of next generation molecular technologies for rapid environmental microbiome diagnostics. Tom was also awarded an Associate Fellow of the Higher Education Academy during time at Cranfield University where he worked as a research fellow in microbial seed technologies.