Dr Lisa Black is a Principal Scientific Officer employed by the Agri-Food and Biosciences Institute (AFBI) in Northern Ireland and is Head of Station at the Plant Testing Station, AFBI Crossnacreevy. She has over 30 years’ experience in agronomy working with both plant and soil. Dr Black oversees the plant variety testing for herbage and cereals in Northern Ireland for statutory and recommendation purposes and represents Northern Ireland on UK seed and variety committees. Other research interests include soil health and use of organic manures in arable. She is highly experienced in managing complex projects within time and budgetary constraints and has been involved in collaborations with universities, research institutes and international companies. Dr Black leads an international research consortium on EC project on innovations in variety testing (www.h2020innovar.eu).

Naoise graduated from Atlantic Technical University Sligo with a BSc (Hons) in Forensic Investigation and Analysis, a course which allowed her to gain experience in a range of analytical chemical techniques such as, HPLC, FTIR and Ion Chromatography. For her final year research project, Naoise focused on the molecular biology aspect of her course. Her project aimed to develop a PCR assay to amply Insertion – Deletion polymorphisms (InDels) for human identification purposes. During this project, she was able to develop such skills as, DNA extraction, quantification, optimization of PCR assays and gel electrophoresis. During her time in MBio Laboratories, she worked alongside the research and development team in their quest to replace peat as a growing medium. Her main role was identifying fungal and bacterial disease infecting mushroom beds in on-going research trials. This was executed using a range of molecular biology techniques. Naoise joined the mycotox-I project group in November 2022, on the commencement of her PhD entitled; Innovative methods of identifying toxigenic fungi in Irish cereal grain, to protect human and animal food chains. During this, she aims to utilize state-of-the-art techniques to determine the agronomic factors associated with increase fusarium infestation and mycotoxin production.