Hanna Amoanimaa-Dede is a PhD candidate at the University of New England, Australia. Her doctoral research investigates how plants acclimate their Photosystem II (PSII) – a core component of the photosynthetic system – to survive high-temperature stress. She integrates hyperspectral imaging, crop physiology, molecular biology, and biochemical analyses to uncover the mechanisms that help plants to survive extreme heat. “What excites me most about this research is integrating novel high-throughput phenotyping tools with molecular approaches to identify heat-tolerant genotypes and the mechanisms that underpin heat-tolerance. This work will improve breeding efficiency and support food security in a warming climate,” she says. Hanna is supervised by Dr Onoriode Coast and Associate Professor Rose Andrew (University of New England), Professor Richard Trethowan (University of Sydney), and Professor Owen K. Atkin (Australian National University). She is a recipient of the Future Food Systems CRC top-up scholarship.
