Louis J Irving

I grew up on a sheep farm in the south of Scotland before completing my undergraduate degree (BSc Biology) at the University of Dundee, and my PhD in Plant Science at the University of Aberdeen.  My first post-doctoral position was under the supervisor of Dr. Cory Matthew at Massey University, Palmerston North, New Zealand.  In 2007, I moved to Japan and completed a Japan Society for the Promotion of Science funded Post-doctoral fellowship in the lab of Prof. Amane Makino at Tohoku University, Sendai, Japan.  In 2010, I was appointed as an Assistant Professor on the G30 internationalization program at the University of Tsukuba.  In 2019 I was tenured.

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My research interests are broadly focused on plant ecophysiology, using a variety of tools.  Broadly speaking, I prefer developing methods to quantify difficult to measure phenomena.  For example, over the last few years I have been attempting to isolate the influences of competition and nutrient status on host - parasitic plant systems.  We also use mathematical modeling to help investigate factors which are not amenable to direct measurement.  I have been involved in a wide variety of projects, from understanding plant nutrient remobilization during senecence, seed germination modeling, and plant responses to waterlogging.  In recent years, my focus has been on two main projects: a parasitic plants project investigating the role of the environment on host-parasite dynamics, and a nutrient uptake project, looking at how plant biomass allocation changes as a result of nutrient availability and spatial dynamics.

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I teach a variety of courses at undergraduate level, including courses on plant ecophysiology, technical communication, and statistical analysis. 

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You can find records of my research output on my Google Scholar page, or by the university research database