2026 Seminar Series

Date	Speaker	Institution	Presentation title
	Dr Matthew Paul	Rothamsted Research, UK	Translating discoveries in sugar signalling to crop yield improvement
	Dr Velu Govindan	International Maize and Wheat Improvement Centre, Mexico	Accelerating Simultaneous Genetic Gains in Wheat for Yield, Resilience, and Nutrition to Drive Global Impact
	A/Prof Adriano Bruno	Tohoku University	High accuracy mapping of collapsed buildings using remote sensing and AI for rapid disaster response
	Dr Pablo Negret‑Torres	Wyss Academy for Nature at University of Bern	Looking beyond Protected Areas to achieve biodiversity retention and socioeconomic development
	Prof Wenwu Zhao	Beijing Normal University	Global-DEP: A scientific framework towards Dryland Sustainability
	Dr Allan Wen	Plant SynBio Australia, ANU, Canberra	From SynBio to the Field: A Flagship Gene-Editing Breeding Program Delivering MLN-Resistant Maize for Africa
	*Dr Renee Marchin Prokopavicius	HIE, WSU	Trees over 40 degrees: Understanding the role of cumulative heat damage in tree mortality under hotter drought
	Prof Anna Simonsen	University of Alberta, Canada	How Genome Variation Shapes Microbial Function in Changing Environments: From Streamlining to Symbiosis
	Dr Chathurika Perera	Blacktown City Council, NSW	Water Sensitive Urban Design (WSUD) assets performance theory to application
	*Professor Elise Pendall	HIE, WSU	The Existential Challenge of Soil Carbon – Climate Feedbacks
	Dr Andrei Herdean	University of Technology Sydney, NSW	Interplay between light and temperature in photosynthesis, with insights from aquatic algae and desert plants
	*Dr Christopher Gordon, Rachael Nolan, Camille Sicangco and Vijay Kumar	HIE, WSU	The Bushfire and Natural Hazards Research Centre: An Overview of HIE-Based Research Projects
	Dr Pok Man (Bob) Leung	Monash University, VIC	From soil to tree microbiomes: new microbial solutions for greenhouse gas mitigation
	Dr Jacqueline Nguyen	Flinders University and the Australian Museum	Australia’s key role in our understanding of songbird evolution
	A/Prof Emilie Ens	School of Natural Sciences, Macquarie University, NSW	Collaborative biocultural research for ethical environmental futures
	Dr Matilda Brown	Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, UK	An overview of a recent paper outlining global conservation problems, including work on developing EDGE (Evolutionarily Distinct (ED) and Globally Endangered (GE)).
	Dr Simone Pedrini	Curtin University	Native seeds for the restoration of degraded ecosystems in Western Australia. Improving the seed supply chain through production, testing and technology
	Dr Yi Ding	University of Sydney, NSW	Tackling complex plant-fungal interactions to enhance crop production and health
	Dr Louise Terryn	Ghent University, Belgium	Measuring the structure of a forest in three dimensions
	Professor Tessa Camenzind	University of Hohenheim	From fungal traits to soil community functions – mechanistic insights to soil carbon and nitrogen cycling
	Professor Jason Hoeksema	University of Mississippi	FACE-FUN project update: interrogating the roles of fungi in carbon cycling and vegetation dynamics at EUC-FACE
	Professor Katie Field	University of Sheffield, UK	Diversity, dynamics and control of mycorrhizal networks
	Dr Justin Matthias	West Virginia University	Wet and dry Eucalyptus obliqua forests of Tasmania, Australia diverge in microbial function and nutrient cycling but may converge in carbon storage under future climate
	Dr Stavros Sakellariou	University of London/University of Thessaly	A Wildfire Resilience Framework across Landscapes, Infrastructure and Communities’

*indicates HIE researchers