Sarah Perryman

Sarah is a scientist and curator of the electronic Rothamsted Archive (e-RA), part of the LTE-NBRI (long-Term Experiment National Bioscience Research Infrastructure), which provides secure storage of Rothamsted’s long-term experimental and meteorological data. Her role, held since 2012, includes sourcing and digitising the data from the original historical documents pertaining to the Rothamsted ‘Classicals’, its famous long-term experiments; preparing new, and updating existing, datasets by collating historical and current data/metadata into open access frictionless ‘FAIR’ datasets; creating design and content for the bespoke long-term experiment website which hosts the long-term experiment database, ‘e-RA’. Additionally, a vital aspect of Sarah’s role is also to assist people, usually scientists but also teachers, lectures and companies, to use the LTE data, to choose appropriate treatments and to understand the many historical changes implemented on these unique field experiments. This is knowledge and support she provides to Rothamsted staff, as well as the wider UK and international users of the data. She works closely with the software engineer in further developing and enhancing the e-RA website, being a continuously developing and expanding resource, for example, implementing the Sample Archive area. She also instigated monitoring database to provide data for regular reporting to UKRI-BBSRC Funders and has supervised Nuffield and gap-year students in using the LTE data, an important outcome of the LTE-NBRI.

She has a diverse background, having worked at Rothamsted Research for more than 30 years embracing the multidisciplinary nature of agricultural science in various fields including plant pathology, weed ecology, herbicide resistance and insecticide resistance. Sarah has worked at all system levels from microbiology, whole plant and field experiments, aiming towards an understanding of the relationships between laboratory-based and real farm-scale effects. 

Sarah also has had a special interest in sharing the skills and knowledge of Rothamsted Research internationally with scientists from developing countries from her role as Liaison Officer with Rothamsted International (2007-2011), supporting RI Fellows onsite as well as African Fellowship Fellows in UK and Europe. She is also interested in the effective communication and visualisation of science to the lay community and school children, as well as in the design of publicity material to enhance the public understanding of science. 

In a previous life, as a keen SCUBA diver 9in the 1990’s, Sarah volunteered on environmental research expeditions to Belize and Tonga to survey the effects of pollution and fishing on coral reefs. She also worked as a tutor for the Field Studies Council, teaching Geography, Ecology & Biology.