Alison Bentley

Director of Genetics and Breeding, NIAB

Alison Bentley is Director of Genetics and Breeding at the National Institute of Agricultural Botany (NIAB) in Cambridge, UK. She leads a 40-strong team of scientists working across a wide range of applied crop science projects. Alison studied Agricultural Science at The University of Sydney, Australia where she also completed a PhD. Her work is centred on understanding the genetic control of complex crop traits and in the application of new breeding technologies. At NIAB Alison leads the exploitation of novel ancestral genetic diversity for wheat improvement via the BBSRC funded cross-institute Designing Future Wheat Institute Strategic Programme and is involved in a wide-range of crop  research and breeding projects in the UK and internationally.