UNE’s Angus Dingley is exploring how temperature extremes affect pollination in polytunnels to help growers produce more and better berries.

We congratulate Ripan Debnath on taking out his PhD from UNSW and for securing a new role as a Consultant for the University of Newcastle’s Institute for Regional Futures.

As CRC Industry PhD student attached to the ‘Blueberry nutritional optimisation’ project, Gareema Pandey is working with crop scientists and sustainability experts at Western Sydney University and NSW Department of Primary Industries to improve the nutritional profile of blueberries grown undercover.

QUT PhD student Lijun ‘Lucy’ Summerhayes, whose research explored urban food policy in Australia, was awarded her doctorate in September.

Western Sydney University PhD student Claudia Vacca has spent their career studying plant pathogens, from trees to potatoes, developing new ways for early detection and intervention.

FFS PhD student Mazadul Islam is working with experts in two nations to find more sustainable ways to fertigate indoor vegetable crops.

Darwin-based FFS PhD scholar Gehan Abdelghany’s research is contributing valuable agronomic information to the FFS-backed ‘Commercialising native rice’ project.

A UNSW-EcoMag project team is exploring cost-effective ways to turn agricultural and industrial waste into low-carbon plasterboard and cladding.

A grades in high-school science turned into a career path for Sumitra Saha, who recently joined Murdoch University as a PhD student on the’Novel microbiome technology’ project team.

FFS PhD scholar Agyemang is modelliing freight data along the agrifood supply chain to boost efficiency and reduce waste on the path from farm to fork.

Mahesh Galappaththi’s BSc thesis was on elephant-human conflict in Sri Lanka; now, he’s looking to ascertain optimal conditions for truffle cultivation in WA.

In the first student catch-up of the year, new FFSCRC CEO Dr James Krahe addressed our PhD cohort on the pros and cons of working in industry vs academia.

A UNE team’s groundbreaking research for Costa Group into hydoponic tomatoes’ root-zone microbes has garnered international media attention. 

FFSCRC Industry PhD student and Western Sydney University student Sonali Koundal is exploring sustainable ways to fertigate glasshouse-grown vegetable crops for the benefit of growers and the environment.

UNSW Sydney PhD student and FFSCRC PhD student Yi-Ya Hsu is developing a tool to help planners and policymakers formulate a smart, sustainable mixed-use strategy for available city office space.

CRC Industry PhD student Miranda Yang is exploring novel methods for spray-drying CRC industry partner Baker & Co’s liquid spice ingredients to increase their shelf life and make it simpler to transport them.

CRC PhD student Charlotte Rowley is working with world-leading scientists at Murdoch University to produce molecular-level profiles of fruit and olive oil that can be used to formulate precision nutrition products and back provenance and health claims.

This spring, Irish doctoral candidate Suzanne Kelly tours partner universities as a guest of the Future Food Systems CRC, looking at agrifood-related research involving social capital, innovation and knowledge exchange.

Future Food Systems PhD student Emily Davies is investigating the composition and safety of herbal weight loss supplements while learning from world-leading scientists at Murdoch Uni’s ANPC and using multi-million-dollar Bruker equipment.

Eleven of the CRC’s PhD scholarship holders met up recently for their first-ever catch-up, with each presenting their research findings.

Andrew Tilley studied food science and technology at Perth WA’s Curtin University, but took the long way round to a CRC-backed PhD at Murdoch via the food manufacturing industry.

Sri-Lanka-born, Western Sydney University-based Eranda Namal Jayasuriya is one of two PhD students attached to the CRC’s ‘IoT for indoor cropping’ project. 

Yusuf Adewale, PhD student, is developing a predictive modelling tool for ascertaining egg production and quality.

QUT PhD and FFS PhD Lijun Summerhayes is researching urban food planning in Australia.

Odgerel Bumandalai is a FFSCRC PhD student at CRC partner institution Murdoch University. Bumandalai’s thesis is investigating the use of cold-plasma technology to extend the safe shelf life of fresh spirulina.

UNSW PhD student Rishi Ravindra Naik is looking to develop new products with ‘clean label’ and sustainability claims by modifying non-traditional plant proteins with seaweeds for improved techno-functionality.

Three new doctoral candidates will contribute valuable research to CRC projects, investigating cooling strategies for protected cropping, analysing herbal weight loss supplements and creating detailed molecular profiles of WA foods to form the foundation of strategies around precision nutrition.

Research leads, PhDs and project collaborators from government and industry are among the CRC-affiliated presenters at this year’s PCA Conference.

Mark Cardamis has graduated from making mini greenhouse prototypes to joining a collaborative university-industry project team as a CRC Industry PhD, exploring mobile sensing systems for remote monitoring of crops in advanced indoor greenhouse systems.

For Egyptian academic Gehan Abdelghany, who’s spent much of her career to date finding beneficial uses of indigenous plant species, undertaking a PhD with the FFS-backed ‘Commercialising native rice’ project was a natural progression.

For this IT-pro-turned-UNE-microbiology post-grad, the chance to study the root microbiome of greenhouse-grown tomatoes with Costa Group under the CRC was one too good to refuse.