Dr Sean Mayes

Following his BA in Natural Sciences (Genetics) at the University of Cambridge and PhD on the Genetic improvement of oil palm, Dr Mayes became International Group Leader, Genetics Department, University of Cambridge. He is also an Associate Professor, Crop Genetics at the University of Nottingham, United Kingdom and Honorary Professor in University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus. Dr Mayes expertise is in quantitative and molecular crop genetics and he has worked on many crop species, but particularly oil palm, wheat and Bambara groundnut. In oil palm, he was responsible for the development of the first genetic map of oil palm and has joint research with MPOB, AAR and Sime Darby. In wheat, he was co-investigator on a programme to raise the ceiling on UK wheat yields through the introgression and assessment of novel ‘large-ear’ CIMMYT germplasm into UK pre-breeding lines. For Bambara groundnut, Dr Mayes was Coordinator (molecular) and Principle Investigator of the EU BAMLINK programme. BamYIELD will build on results from BAMLINK. He is currently a consultant to Sime Darby on oil palm genetics and to the Omani Government on date palm genetics.