April 24th 2023
Dan Jones has been announced as the winner of the prestigious Colegrave Seabrook Foundation's Hort Tech Award – sponsored by the Worshipful Company of Gardeners.
Dan first became interested in plants and the environment while helping his grandmother in her garden. This led to him taking on his own garden and starting gardening jobs for neighbours and friends. Such was his interest in horticulture that he enrolled for a BSc in Horticulture at Writtle University College and is now in his final year. His dissertation revolved around the study of the use of insect frass as a bio-fertiliser/bio-amendment in soils. His interest in this and looking at alternative ways of producing high-quality plants in commercial settings, led the trustees to awarding him the exclusive Hort Tech award.
His course tutor said, “Dan has proactively tackled his dissertation project in a manner that shows a genuine talent for research and problem solving. I have been impressed by his conscientious approach and his academic ability to think critically across discipline boundaries something that I feel is essential to the future of Horticulture.”
Dan is hoping to go on to study for an MSc in either horticulture or an environmental based degree with a strong focus on agroecology. He plans to use his scholarship award funding to help with this ambition.
On learning that he had been awarded this scholarship, Dan said,
“Being a recipient of the prestigious Hort Tech award will allow me to continue my passion to finding new solutions for current problems relating to the sustainability of our industry. I could not be happier with this opportunity and look forward to contributing further to research into alternative methods to reduce agrochemical overreliance and emissions for a climate-resilient future.”
The Hort Tech Award is sponsored by the Worshipful Company of Gardeners, and we are very grateful to them for their support of the Foundation and its work encouraging students in horticulture.
Source: https://colegraveseabrookfoundation.org.uk/2023/04/24/dan-jones-writtle-hort-tech-scholarship/