Research Scientists

Damien Lightfoot

Research Scientist​​

Research Interests: Plant molecular biology, Bioinformatics, Plant physiology, Genomics

Fouad Lemtiri-Chlieh

Research Scientist

Research Interests: Electrophysiology, Sodium transport, Signal transduction pathways

Magdalena Julkowska

Research Scientist

Research Interests: Salinity tolerance, Root architecture, Plant Architecture, High throughput phenotyping

Rita Bartossek

Research Scientist

Research Interests: Biotechnology, metagenomics as tool for analysis of novel enzymes of complex communities, microbial ecology, comparative genomics, next generation sequencing, adaptation to extreme environments in plants

Sonia Negrao

Research Scientist

Yung Shwen Ho

Research Scientist

Research Interests: Plant genomics, Bioinformatics, Big Data Visualization, Computational Biology

Postdoctoral Fellows

Bo Li

Postdoctoral Fellow​

Research Interests: Bioinformatics, Anion Transport, Plant molecular biology

David Jarvis

Post-doctoral fellow ​

Research Interests: Salinity tolerance, Adaptation, Genomics, Biotechnology

Gordon Wellman

Post-Doctoral Fellow

Research Interests: Plant Abiotic stress tolerance, Transcriptomic, Genome sequencing, Salinity, Biotechnology

Moonsun Hwang

Research Interests: Molecular biology, Biochemistry

Octavio Salazar

​Postdoctoral Fellow

Research Interests: Salinity tolerance, Halophytes, Tissue Tolerance, Saponins

Sandra Schmöckel

Research Interests: Salinity tolerance, Ion transport, Crop science, Barley, Plant Science

Shawkat Ali

Research Interests: Salinity tolerance, Signalling, Genetic engineering

PhD Students

Mashael D. Alqahtani

Research Interests: Plant physiology, Genetic engineering, Molecular biology

Mitchell Morton

Research Interests: Plant physiology, Salinity tolerance, Plant genetics, Molecular biology, Crop improvement, Salinity tolerance in tomato plants, Wild relatives of tomato, Galapagos tomatoes

Nadia Al-Tamimi

Research Interests: Salinity tolerance, Molecular biology, Plant genomics

Nouf Alshareef

Research Interests: Abiotic Stress, Salt Stress, Heat Stress, Transcription Factors, Gene Regulatory Network

Masters Students

Arne Scheu

Ms Student
Research Group: Mark Tester​​​

Eunje Kim

Masters Student
Research Group: Mark Tester

Hana Kanee

Ms Student
Research Group: Mark Tester

Jose Otero

Visiti​ng Student
Research Group: Mark Tester

Savannah Stark

Visiti​ng Student
Research Group: Mark Tester

Research Group Staff

Bhagya Girjia

Lab Support Technician

Research Interests: Women's health, Cardiovascular & Neuro physiology

Fangfang Wu

Lab Technician

Igor Silva

The Salt Lab coordinator

Jyoti Dubey

Greenhouse Technician

Research Interests: Salinity tolerance, Applied molecular and cellular biology, Plant molecular biology

Khadija Zemmouri

Greenhouse Technician​

Lijun Li

Greenhouse Technician​

Research Interests: Salinity tolerance

Lila Ali Aldakheel

Greenhouse Technician

Rameesha M. Parambil

​Lab Technician at the Salt Lab
Research Group: Mark Tester

Shireen Hammoud

Lab Technician

Research Interests: Salinity tolerance

Sundus Bukhari

Lab Technician

Research Interests: Salinity tolerance