Monique Simmonds

Monique Sheelagh Jacquard Simmonds (born February 1950) 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. Her doctoral thesis was on the subject of the parasitoids of synanthropic flies.

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. She has worked at Kew Gardens since 1985. Simmonds research interests are in the economic uses of plants and fungi, and the uses of chemicals derived from plants and fungi. She is also involved in the identification of compounds derived from plants. Simmonds fundraised to create a collection of 7,000 specimens from Chinese medicine at Kew, and has been directing research aimed at using them to improve the safety of Traditional Chinese Medicine.

Simmonds has provided chemical botanical investigations in several criminal investigations. Simmonds identified sesame in the food from Pret a manger eaten by Natasha Ednan-Laperouse before her allergic reaction and death in 2016.

Simmonds is a Fellow of the Royal Entomological Society, the World Innovation Foundation, the Royal Society of Biology, and the Linnean Society.

Selected publications