2026 Seminar Series
| Date | Speaker | Institution | Presentation title |
| 10 February | Dr Matthew Paul | Rothamsted Research, UK | Translating discoveries in sugar signalling to crop yield improvement |
| 10 February | 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 |
| 20 February | A/Prof Adriano Bruno | Tohoku University | High accuracy mapping of collapsed buildings using remote sensing and AI for rapid disaster response |
| 24 February | Dr Pablo Negret‑Torres | Wyss Academy for Nature at University of Bern | Looking beyond Protected Areas to achieve biodiversity retention and socioeconomic development |
| 2 March | Prof Wenwu Zhao | Beijing Normal University | Global-DEP: A scientific framework towards Dryland Sustainability |
| 3 March | 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 |
| 10 March | *Dr Renee Marchin Prokopavicius | HIE, WSU | Trees over 40 degrees: Understanding the role of cumulative heat damage in tree mortality under hotter drought |
| 24 March | Prof Anna Simonsen | University of Alberta, Canada | How Genome Variation Shapes Microbial Function in Changing Environments: From Streamlining to Symbiosis |
| 31 March | Dr Chathurika Perera | Blacktown City Council, NSW | Water Sensitive Urban Design (WSUD) assets performance theory to application |
| 7 April | *Professor Elise Pendall | HIE, WSU | The Existential Challenge of Soil Carbon – Climate Feedbacks |
| 14 April | Dr Andrei Herdean | University of Technology Sydney, NSW | Interplay between light and temperature in photosynthesis, with insights from aquatic algae and desert plants |
| 21 April | *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 |
| 28 April | Dr Pok Man (Bob) Leung | Monash University, VIC | From soil to tree microbiomes: new microbial solutions for greenhouse gas mitigation |
| 5 May | Dr Jacqueline Nguyen | Flinders University and the Australian Museum | Australia’s key role in our understanding of songbird evolution |
| 12 May | A/Prof Emilie Ens | School of Natural Sciences, Macquarie University, NSW | Collaborative biocultural research for ethical environmental futures |
| 19 May | 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)). |
| 26 May | 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 |
| 2 June | Dr Yi Ding | University of Sydney, NSW | Tackling complex plant-fungal interactions to enhance crop production and health |
| 16 June | Dr Louise Terryn | Ghent University, Belgium | Measuring the structure of a forest in three dimensions |
| 7 July | Professor Tessa Camenzind | University of Hohenheim | From fungal traits to soil community functions – mechanistic insights to soil carbon and nitrogen cycling |
| 9 July | Professor Jason Hoeksema | University of Mississippi | FACE-FUN project update: interrogating the roles of fungi in carbon cycling and vegetation dynamics at EUC-FACE |
| 7 July | Professor Katie Field | University of Sheffield, UK | Diversity, dynamics and control of mycorrhizal networks |
| 9 July | 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 |
| 28 July | Dr Stavros Sakellariou | University of London/University of Thessaly | A Wildfire Resilience Framework across Landscapes, Infrastructure and Communities’ |
| 4 August | Professor Heather Throop | School of Earth & Space Exploration and School of Life Sciences at Arizona State University | Chasing ostrich footprints: When is heterogeneity critical for understanding dryland carbon cycling? |
| 11 August | *Dr Aakash Chhabra | HIE, WSU | May the Remote Sensing Be with You |
| 25 August | Dr Nathali Machado de Lima | UNSW | Harnessing Soil Microbial-Based Strategies and Seed Enhancement Technologies for Biodiversity Restoration |
*indicates HIE researchers