People, Project and Funding
The 3D Pollen Project is scanning the world's pollen in 3D, then sharing the outputs for outreach, education and research. 3D-printed, biologically accurate and larger-than-life pollen models can be an invaluable tool to help scientists and other audiences connect over pollen-related research. Run by Dr Oliver Wilson at the University of York (UK), the 3D Pollen Project aims to make these connections possible for as wide a range of people as possible.
Oli first had the idea of 3D-printing pollen grains in the run-up to starting his PhD at the University of Reading in 2017, and was delighted to discover that Dr Kat Holt, from Massey University (New Zealand), had worked out a way to do it. The 3D Pollen Project began later that year with £500 from the I'm A Scientist (Get Me Out Of Here!) competition, and was later boosted by £2,500 from the University of Reading's Teaching and Learning Development Fund. In late 2019 and early 2020, the 3D Pollen Project was also part of a £5,000 grant from NERC (the UK's Natural Environment Research Council) to help researchers and engagement specialists co-produce resources for public outreach.
Oli worked on the 3D Pollen Project as a Graduate Teaching Assistant from 2017 to 2020, alongside his PhD research. (His PhD, supervised by Prof. Frank Mayle, examined the influences of humans and climate changes on Brazil's iconic Araucaria Forests in the past and future.) Much of this work took place at the University of Hull, where Oli was a visiting student with Dr Jane Bunting.
In 2022, after a couple of years with his focus mainly elsewhere – parenthood, a pandemic, and finishing that PhD, among others – Oli joined the University of York as a NERC-funded Knowledge Exchange Fellow. At York, Oli is working with Prof. Rob Marchant, a tropical ecologist in the Department of Environment and Geography, and Dr Peter O'Toole, a bioimaging expert in the Department of Biology. Other project partners include the RHS Garden Harlow Carr, the Humberheads Peatlands National Nature Reserve, the Universities of Glasgow and Hull, and the State University of Campinas (Brazil).
The aim of Oli's three-year fellowship is to expand the 3D Pollen Project in various ways:
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to increase the size of its dataset by one or two orders of magnitude,
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to scan a representative and widely useful sample of the world's pollen, and
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to work with partners to pioneer new ways of using 3D pollen to bring together researchers and other audiences.
You can read more about Oli's plans for the fellowship on the UK Research and Innovation grants portal., and more details will be shared on the blog and/or Twitter as the project continues to unfold.