CBESS would like to welcome it’s newest member of the team, Dr Julie Webb of Bangor University.
Julie has a research masters from the University of Wales, Bangor in Marine biology (2005) and a PhD in applied marine biology (2012). In both, the research thesis focussed on the role of the halophyte Salicornia europaea in constructed wetlands for treatment of marine aquaculture wastewater.
Julie has worked on a number of collaborative projects; on the £2.6 million MENTERRA project, an agri-innovation project working in partnership with the Welsh Assembly Government and the Welsh Development Agency. Julie’s role was to investigate through growth trials the commercial applications of the wild halophyte S. europaea in both marine aquaculture and the gourmet food market. Julie continued this research on the EU-CRAFT funded ENVIROPHYTE project, a pan-european collaborative project working with industry and academics to investigate how effectively an artificial wetland planted with Salicornia can remediate nutrient rich effluent from saline fish farms and provide a viable commercial by-product. More recently Julie has been a research officer on an A4B Collaborative Industrial Research Project developing cultivation methods for lab based and offshore (Irish Sea) cultivation and investigating their potential as sources of novel functional ingredients http://gwymon-seaweed.bangor.ac.uk.
Julie is currently working as a Research Assistant on the CBESS project and is enjoying redefining value when discussing saltmarsh plants!