The ARC Centre of Excellence for Plant Success was pleased to be the convenors of the National Science Quiz for 2023. The National Science Quiz aims to celebrate science and inspire the next generation of Aussie scientists. The Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Mathematical and Statistical Frontiers (ACEMS) was the driving force behind the first National Science Quiz
Earlier this year, I visited the Centre’s University of Queensland Node, where I brainstormed with members of the Centre – especially Professor and Chief Investigator, Daniel Ortiz-Barrientos – about how evolutionary approaches could aid in crop adaptation to climate change. These discussions led to a review that recently appeared in Molecular Plant. The disciplines of evolutionary biology and plant and
Centre PhD Student Zuba Ahmed (Queensland University of Technology) worked with urban Indigenous artist Paula Mellios to create a shirt showcasing the model plant Nicotiana benthamiana, commonly known as benth. The design was inspired by Zuba’s research, where she works to identify which genes are responsible for successful anthocyanin production in the Australian native. Anthocyanins are pigments that are responsible
Pictured above: (L-R) Mani Mua, Casey Fung, Caitlin Dudley, Prabhakaran Vanaraja Ambeth and Olalekan Amoo. Not pictured Giuliana Fiore. The University of Queensland’s Global Change Scholars Program offers an avenue for PhD students to develop their expertise in transdisciplinary research with an industry partner. In 2022-2023, Associate PhD students Ola Amoo and Caitlin Dudley participated in a project where they
This is my fourth Centre of Excellence (CoE). The previous ones were in complex systems, bioinformatics, big data and modelling, and now plant systems. They have all been very different. The most important issue that I have learnt is that being in a CoE is hard, and it should be hard. We all have an obligation to take the time
