Monique Simmonds
{{Short description|English botanist, Royal Gardens Kew}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}
{{Infobox scientist
| caption =
| birth_name = Monique Sheelagh Jacquard Simmonds
| birth_date = {{Birth year and age|1950|2}}
| nationality = British
| alma_mater = University of Leeds (BSc)
Birkbeck College (PhD)
}}
Monique Sheelagh Jacquard Simmonds {{Post-nominals|country=GBR|size=100%|OBE}} (born February 1950){{Cite web |title=Monique Sheelagh Jacquard SIMMONDS personal appointments - Find and update company information - GOV.UK |url=https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/officers/848oPNE8pKRTDJS1chhxKBapeZc/appointments |access-date=2025-05-17 |website=find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk |language=en}} 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.
Life
Simmonds earned her BSc at the University of Leeds and her PhD in parasitology at Birkbeck College, University of London.{{Cite web |title=Simmonds, Monique {{!}} Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew |url=https://www.kew.org/science-conservation/research-data/science-directory/people/simmonds-monique |archive-url=http://web.archive.org/web/20160903193842/http://www.kew.org:80/science-conservation/research-data/science-directory/people/simmonds-monique |archive-date=2016-09-03 |access-date=2025-04-04 |website=www.kew.org |language=en}} Her doctoral thesis was on the subject of the parasitoids of synanthropic flies.{{Cite thesis|title=Parasitoids of synanthropic flies|last=Simmonds|first=M. S. J.|publisher=Birkbeck College, University of London|type=PhD|date=1984}}
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.{{Cite web |title=Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew: CEB staff |url=https://www.kew.org/science/ecbot/ecbot-staff.html |archive-url=http://web.archive.org/web/20160822044555/http://www.kew.org:80/science/ecbot/ecbot-staff.html |archive-date=2016-08-22 |access-date=2025-04-04 |website=www.kew.org |language=en-GB}} She has worked at Kew Gardens since 1985.{{Cite web |date=2009-08-16 |title=Revealed: The brains behind Kew Gardens' beauty |url=https://www.richmondandtwickenhamtimes.co.uk/news/4547088.revealed-the-brains-behind-kew-gardens-beauty/ |access-date=2025-04-04 |website=Richmond and Twickenham Times |language=en}} Simmonds research interests are in the economic uses of plants and fungi, and the uses of chemicals derived from plants and fungi.{{Cite web |date=28 January 2020 |title=Herbal Essences is Improving the Health of Hair With More Plant Power in 2020 |url=https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200128005155/en/Herbal-Essences-is-Improving-the-Health-of-Hair-With-More-Plant-Power-in-2020 |access-date=5 April 2025 |website=BusinessWire}}{{Cite web |last=Lawrence |first=Janna |date=2014-10-15 |title=Mind-expanding exploration at London's Kew Gardens |url=https://pharmaceutical-journal.com/article/opinion/mind-expanding-exploration-at-londons-kew-gardens |access-date=2025-04-04 |website=The Pharmaceutical Journal |language=en-US}}{{Cite web |last=Houlton |first=Sarah |date=2014-09-23 |title=Chemistry in bloom |url=https://www.chemistryworld.com/features/chemistry-in-bloom-/7760.article |access-date=2025-04-04 |website=Chemistry World |language=en}} She is also involved in the identification of compounds derived from plants.{{Cite web |title=Professor Monique Simmonds OBE {{!}} Kew |url=https://www.kew.org/science/our-science/people/monique-simmonds |access-date=2025-04-04 |website=www.kew.org |language=en}} Simmonds fundraised to create a collection of 7,000 specimens from Chinese medicine at Kew,{{Cite web |title=Revitalizing the science of traditional medicinal plants |url=https://www.nature.com/articles/d42473-021-00478-9 |access-date=5 April 2025 |website=nature portfolio}} and has been directing research aimed at using them to improve the safety of Traditional Chinese Medicine.{{Cite web |last=CBBC |date=2020-08-07 |title=Britain's Kew Gardens is working to make TCM safer |url=https://focus.cbbc.org/kew-gardens-tcm/ |access-date=2025-04-04 |website=Focus - China Britain Business Council |language=en-GB}}
Simmonds has provided chemical botanical investigations in several criminal investigations. She was responsible for identifying the plant Gelsemium elegans as a possible cause of the poisoning of Alexander Perepilichny in 2015.{{cite news |last1=Harding |first1=Luke |last2=Walker |first2=Shaun |date=19 May 2015 |title='Poisoned' Russian whistleblower was fatalistic over death threats |url=https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2015/may/19/poisoned-russian-whistleblower-was-fatalistic-over-death-threats |access-date=4 May 2016 |work=The Guardian |location=London}} Simmonds identified sesame in the food from Pret a manger eaten by Natasha Ednan-Laperouse before her allergic reaction and death in 2016.{{Cite web |date=30 September 2020 |title=Harm or Harmony: How safe are we from the foods we eat? |url=https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/harm-or-harmony-how-safe-are-we-from-the-foods-we-eat/id1524216431?i=1000493018906 |access-date=2025-04-04 |website=Apple Podcasts |language=en-US}}
Simmonds is a Fellow of the Royal Entomological Society, the World Innovation Foundation, the Royal Society of Biology, and the Linnean Society.{{Cite web |last=UCL |date=2019-10-30 |title=Monique Simmonds |url=https://www.ucl.ac.uk/spicesandmedicine/conference-may-2013/speakers-and-abstracts/monique-simmonds |access-date=2025-04-04 |website=Spices and Medicine |language=en}}
{{botanist|M.Simmonds|inline=yes}}
Selected publications
{{Scholia}}
- {{Cite Q|Q35025960}}
- {{Cite Q|Q28282057}}
- {{Cite Q|Q35208488}}
- {{Cite Q|Q40422649}}
- {{Cite Q|Q100146648}}
- {{Cite Q|Q52586631}}
References
{{Reflist}}
External links
- [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CZw8SIMnEmw&t=241s Substantiating Botanical Safety & Sustainability] with Prof Monique Simmonds, Ph.D., 8 March 2022, via YouTube
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Simmonds, Monique}}
Category:21st-century British botanists
Category:Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew
Category:Alumni of Birkbeck, University of London
Category:Alumni of the University of Leeds
Category:Officers of the Order of the British Empire
Category:Year of birth missing (living people)
Category:English women scientists