Monique Simmonds

{{Infobox scientist | caption = | birth_name = Monique Sheelagh Jacquard Simmonds | birth_date = {{Birth year and age|1950|2}} | alma_mater = University of Leeds (BSc)<br>Birkbeck College (PhD) }}

'''Monique Sheelagh Jacquard Simmonds''' {{Post-nominals|country=GBR|size=100%|OBE}} (born February 1950)<ref>{{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}}</ref> 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.<ref name=":0">{{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=https://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}}</ref> Her doctoral thesis was on the subject of the parasitoids of synanthropic flies.<ref>{{Cite thesis|title=Parasitoids of synanthropic flies|last=Simmonds|first=M. S. J.|publisher=Birkbeck College, University of London|type=PhD|date=1984}}</ref>

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.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew: CEB staff |url=https://www.kew.org/science/ecbot/ecbot-staff.html |archive-url=https://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}}</ref> She has worked at Kew Gardens since 1985.<ref name=":1">{{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}}</ref> Simmonds research interests are in the economic uses of plants and fungi, and the uses of chemicals derived from plants and fungi.<ref name=":0" /><ref>{{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}}</ref><ref>{{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}}</ref><ref>{{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}}</ref> She is also involved in the identification of compounds derived from plants.<ref>{{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}}</ref> Simmonds fundraised to create a collection of 7,000 specimens from Chinese medicine at Kew,<ref>{{Cite journal |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}}</ref> and has been directing research aimed at using them to improve the safety of Traditional Chinese Medicine.<ref>{{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}}</ref>

Simmonds has provided chemical botanical investigations in several criminal investigations.<ref name=":1" /> She was responsible for identifying the plant ''Gelsemium elegans'' as a possible cause of the poisoning of Alexander Perepilichny in 2015.<ref name="harding-walker-guardian">{{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}}</ref> Simmonds identified sesame in the food from Pret a manger eaten by Natasha Ednan-Laperouse before her allergic reaction and death in 2016.<ref>{{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}}</ref>

Simmonds is a Fellow of the Royal Entomological Society, the World Innovation Foundation, the Royal Society of Biology, and the Linnean Society.<ref>{{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}}</ref>

==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 {{authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Simmonds, Monique}} Category:Living people 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:English women scientists Category:1950 births Category:20th-century English botanists Category:20th-century British women biologists