FELS Inaugural Lecture with Professor Mark Chapman Event

Time:

3:30pm

Date:

2026-04-22 15:30:00

Venue:

University of Southampton, Centenary Building (100), University Road, Southampton, SO17 1BJ

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Event details

This is the fifth Faculty of Environmental and Life Sciences Inaugural Lecture in our 2025-26 series that celebrates the careers of our newly appointed Professors. On Wednesday 22nd April 2026, Professor Mark Chapman from the School of Biological Sciences and Professor Tom Gernon from the School of Ocean and Earth Science will present their research. Details of both lectures are available via the booking link.

Professor Mark Chapman

Bean There, Done That: From School Classrooms to Global Food Security

We are accustomed to a range of pulses, fruits and vegetables being available to us; however, we rely on surprisingly few: almost half of human calories come from just three crops (wheat, rice, and maize). In this talk I will discuss the impact of this over-reliance in a changing world and how agricultural diversification can improve this as well as provide dietary benefits. My focus is legumes, due to their ability to fix atmospheric Nitrogen (reducing the need to fertilisers) and their nutritional benefits, especially as a meat substitute. I will discuss two aspects of my research. First, how we can use genome sequencing to understand crop origins and the basis of important traits such as drought tolerance and yield. Second, how my work with schools has developed into a platform for knowledge exchange. I will end by discussing what we might be eating in the future, and how we will identify and evolve these novel crops.

Biography

I am a Professor at the University of Southampton and have been here for 12 years. Prior to this I did my PhD in St Andrews, and postdocs in Athens, Georgia, USA and Oxford. In my lab, one of the main themes of our research is domestication and crop evolution. I use my background in evolutionary biology to inform the study of crop origins and diversification, often using genomics and other ‘omic technologies, however I make sure we never forget about what these plants look like, where they live and how they are affected by humans and the environment. I have a particular research focus on novel and underutilised crops (NUCs) – crops which are internationally less known but bring adaptive and nutritional benefits. With the climate changing, and crops feeling the stress, we need to explore these NUCs as mechanisms of diversifying our agriculture and diets.