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
The Centre held its third annual Research Retreat and second annual Early Career Researcher (ECR) Workshop in Cairns last week with 108 and 74 in-person attendees respectively. It was great to hear from so many of our Centre Members on their recent research achievements and discuss future directions. The Research Retreat began with a Welcome to Country from the Minjil group who
I was recently lucky enough to participate in the Early Career Researcher (ECR) Development Day expertly organised by ECRs from the Centre and the respective Schools of Earth and Environmental Sciences and Biological Sciences at The University of Queensland. I was there to provide some perspective on non-academic career opportunities and had the opportunity to listen to some other sessions
There is much interest in the new generation Artificial Intelligence (AI) chatbots, including ChatGPT. In part, such platforms are designed to mimic or reproduce human “conversations” including scientific discussion, with functionality stretching to writing and debugging computer code. Without a doubt these new platforms will change the scientific landscape, but will scientists and researchers become redundant? Will future scientists need
The ARC Centre of Excellence for Plant Success in Nature and Agriculture is pleased to share our 2022 Annual Report with you. The report outlines more information about our Centre, research, community, and performance in 2022. As those who have been subscribed to this newsletter for a while would know, 2022 was a jam-packed year for the Centre that saw us recruit lots of new members, host,
A significant body of work on the evolution of land plants has been conducted in 2022. The research led from Chief Investigator John Bowman’s lab provides new insights into the mechanisms controlling the development and reproduction of non-vascular plants, and outlines the benefit of using liverworts as a model system. By providing insights into the evolution of vascular plants, the
