Shaun Nielsen was a senior research associate for the RIPE project at Lancaster University. Shaun analyses and interprets genomic data to better understand biological processes. For the RIPE project, he performed bioinformatic analysis on plant gene expressions. Shaun received his bachelor's degree in marine science from the University of New South Wales and a master's in biostatistics from the University of Sydney. He went on to earn a doctorate in marine ecology from the University of New South Wales where he did studied microbial ecology as a postdoctoral researcher. His work is published in many peer-reviewed journals, including Agriculture, Ecosystems and Environment, Scientific Reports and FEMS Microbiology Ecology.