Last week was our 2025 Research Retreat, where there was once again a high calibre of posters and presentations from Centre members. This year, we were thrilled to be joined by many invited speakers, including Alison Bentley, Renee Lafitte and Belinda Medlyn, who delivered engaging plenary talks. We were also joined by Tia Squire from Untapped who delivered a fantastic workshop on communication across neurotypes that sparked some great conversations. Another highly valuable presentation that produced some great insights was from UQ Copyright Officer James Lewandowski-Cox on generative AI in research and publishing. Thank you all for coming and sharing your knowledge with us.
Congratulations again to the well-deserved winners of our Retreat awards:
- Best Speed Talk – Isabella Amor
- Best Student Presentation – Zoe Broad and Tori Millsteed
- Best Postdoctoral Researcher Presentation – Melanie Wilkinson
- Best Student Poster – Zuba Ahmed
- Best Postdoctoral Researcher Poster – Travis Britton
During the Retreat, we were also able to acknowledge the Centre for Plant Success Core Values awards winners for the year – Tom Fisher and Tiana Scott for Inclusivity; Phoebe Baldwin for Integrity; and Kritika Sharma for International Excellence.
We introduced a Plant Success art competition this year, with Jessica Lazner receiving the judges’ choice award for her drawing of a Paphiopedilum orchid and Waqas Dogar receiving the people’s choice award for his drawing of a tree.
Thank you very much to our professional staff, the CORMS team, for another fantastic Research Retreat and to Caitlin Dudley and Arlie Macdonald for their contributions to organising the 2-day capacity building workshop on behalf of the Researcher Development Working Group.
We are also pleased to share with you our 2024 Annual Report. The report provides an overview of our research, capacity building, outreach and engagement achievements in 2024. As you will see in the report, the Centre continues to deliver some fantastic outputs and it is due to our dedicated and passionate Centre members and supporters. We thank you for your continued support and hope that you will enjoy reading about the achievements of the Centre.
Lastly, congratulations to Plant Success Centre Director Christine Beveridge, who has accepted a joint appointment as Director for the Centre for Horticultural Science at Queensland Alliance for Agriculture and Food Innovation (QAAFI). There will be significant opportunities for the Centre to benefit from synergies and new collaborations with this joint appointment.
David Tomlins
Chief Operating Officer
