Monique Simmonds
English botanist, Royal Gardens Kew
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Monique Sheelagh Jacquard Simmonds OBE (born February 1950)[1] is a British chemist and botanist who is deputy keeper of the Jodrell Laboratory at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. She has been involved in identifying plant-derived compounds in several criminal investigations. She is a Fellow of the Royal Entomological Society and the Royal Society of Biology.
February 1950 (age 76)
Birkbeck College (PhD)
Monique Simmonds | |
|---|---|
| Born | Monique Sheelagh Jacquard Simmonds February 1950 (age 76) |
| Alma mater | University of Leeds (BSc) Birkbeck College (PhD) |
Life
Simmonds earned her BSc at the University of Leeds and her PhD in parasitology at Birkbeck College, University of London.[2] Her doctoral thesis was on the subject of the parasitoids of synanthropic flies.[3]
Simmonds is deputy keeper of the Jodrell Laboratory at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, and Director of the Commercial Innovation Unit. She is also Deputy Director of Science - Partnerships.[4] She has worked at Kew Gardens since 1985.[5] Simmonds research interests are in the economic uses of plants and fungi, and the uses of chemicals derived from plants and fungi.[2][6][7][8] She is also involved in the identification of compounds derived from plants.[9] Simmonds fundraised to create a collection of 7,000 specimens from Chinese medicine at Kew,[10] and has been directing research aimed at using them to improve the safety of Traditional Chinese Medicine.[11]
Simmonds has provided chemical botanical investigations in several criminal investigations.[5] She was responsible for identifying the plant Gelsemium elegans as a possible cause of the poisoning of Alexander Perepilichny in 2015.[12] Simmonds identified sesame in the food from Pret a manger eaten by Natasha Ednan-Laperouse before her allergic reaction and death in 2016.[13]
Simmonds is a Fellow of the Royal Entomological Society, the World Innovation Foundation, the Royal Society of Biology, and the Linnean Society.[14]
The standard author abbreviation M.Simmonds is used to indicate this person as the author when citing a botanical name.[15]
Selected publications
- Maike Petersen; Monique S J Simmonds (1 January 2003). "Rosmarinic acid". Phytochemistry. 62 (2): 121–125. doi:10.1016/S0031-9422(02)00513-7. ISSN 0031-9422. PMID 12482446. Wikidata Q35025960.
- Catherine W Lukhoba; Monique S J Simmonds; Alan J Paton (3 January 2006). "Plectranthus: a review of ethnobotanical uses". Journal of Ethnopharmacology. 103 (1): 1–24. doi:10.1016/J.JEP.2005.09.011. ISSN 0378-8741. PMID 16289602. Wikidata Q28282057.
- Monique S J Simmonds (1 September 2003). "Flavonoid-insect interactions: recent advances in our knowledge". Phytochemistry. 64 (1): 21–30. doi:10.1016/S0031-9422(03)00293-0. ISSN 0031-9422. PMID 12946403. Wikidata Q35208488.
- Alex Asase; Alfred A Oteng-Yeboah; George T Odamtten; Monique S J Simmonds; Asase, A.; Oteng-Yeboah, A.A.; Odamtten, G.T.; Simmonds, M.S.J. (18 April 2005). "Ethnobotanical study of some Ghanaian anti-malarial plants". Journal of Ethnopharmacology. 99 (2): 273–279. doi:10.1016/J.JEP.2005.02.020. ISSN 0378-8741. PMID 15894138. Wikidata Q40422649.
- Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew; Susana Gonçalves (September 2020), State of the World’s Plants and Fungi 2020 (PDF), Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, doi:10.34885/172, Wikidata Q100146648, archived from the original (PDF) on 7 October 2020
- Simmonds MS (1 February 2001). "Importance of flavonoids in insect--plant interactions: feeding and oviposition". Phytochemistry. 56 (3): 245–252. doi:10.1016/S0031-9422(00)00453-2. ISSN 0031-9422. PMID 11243451. Wikidata Q52586631.