Monday, 17 August 2026 at 8:00 pm - 9:15 pm
Keith is the Professor Emeritus of Crop Genetics in the School of Biological Sciences, University of Bristol. He has forty years’ experience in crop genetics and genomics, including thirteen years at ICI. Before his retirement he led the genotyping theme of the UK’s wheat breeding efforts. In 2011, Keith was awarded the Royal Agricultural Society of England Research Medal for his “outstanding contribution to UK agriculture” and in 2018 he, along with Professor Graham Moore, was awarded the Rank Prize for Nutrition for “pioneering research which has enabled global plant breeders to exploit cereal genomics to develop improved wheat cultivars.”
In the years leading up to his retirement Keith returned to his love of cider and cider apples; working with local cider companies to both characterise the existing cider varieties developed at Long Ashton Research Station and still used by the UK cider industry, and to identify varieties which had been lost to the national collections. Working with Sandford Orchards Keith hope to bring these lost varieties back from the dead so that we can once again taste their unique characteristics. In todays talk, Keith will explain, in very simple terms, how he set about applying advanced genetics to the wonderful complex West Country beverage that is cider.