Postgraduate Students

The Institute's higher degree research students are actively engaged in projects relevant to the current research agenda within Australia and overseas. Our cohort gain valuable experience from research-active academic staff, while contributing fresh ideas and knowledge to their chosen field.

Current Students

Please note: Students with active web site links have successfully completed their Confirmation of Candidature milestone.

• Mr Yagiz Alagoz - Thesis title - Environmental regulation of RNA, epigenetic and metabolic processes in plants
• Ms Vicky Austin - Thesis title - Investigating the structure and function of mimetic song in female superb lyrebirds (Menura novaehollandiae)
• Ms Diana Backes - Thesis title - Enhancing climate-hardiness and climate change preparedness for horticultural plants
• Ms Kirsten Ball - Thesis title - Phosphorous Limitation of Ecosystem Carbon Sequestration
• Mr Kirk Barnett - Thesis title - Hidden herbivory, precarious precipitation and punished pastures: Australia's grasslands under root herbivory and altered rainfall
• Mr Marvin Beckert - Thesis title - Manipulation of Black Carbon to Increase Soil Carbon Sequestration
• Mr Eric Brenya - Thesis title - Elucidating how environmental change can alter RNA, epigenetic and metabolic processes to promote cross-acclimation to plant stresses.
• Ms Kylie Brice - Thesis title - Bugs in "Bears"- are Mismatches between Diets and Gut Microbial Communities a Bugbear for Translocated Koalas?
• Ms Lisa Bromfield - Thesis title - Individual Strategies to Cope with Environmental Change: A test of the pace-of-life syndrome hypothesis.
• Ms Laura Castaneda Gomez - Thesis title - Mycorrhizae-mediated mechanisms for soil organic matter decomposition under elevated CO₂
• Ms Anthea Challis - Thesis title - Genotypic variation in Marri may facilitate physiological tolerance to drought
• Mr Sachin Chavan - Thesis title - Modelling the leaf-to-canopy photosynthetic response of wheat to eCO₂ under drought and heat
• Mr Jeffrey Chieppa - Thesis title - Effects of drought and phosphorus availability on plant and microbial communities in pasture grasslands in Australia
• Ms Zineb Choury - Thesis title - Determining the acclimation capacity of Australian rainforest trees growing in warm and cool climates
• Ms Danielle Creek - Thesis title - Forests for the Future: Making the Most of a High CO₂ World
• Ms Chathurika Daulagala - Thesis title - Ecological relationships between resident and inoculant rhizobia in pulse crop
• Mr Brendan Delroy - Thesis title - Effects of Arbuscular Mycorrhiza on the accumulation of Salicylic Acid in B. distachyon root systems
• Ms Coline Deveautour - Thesis title - Influence of water availability on arbuscular mysorrhizal fungi and plants
• Mr Namraj Dhami - Thesis title - Environmental regulation of carotenoid biosynthesis in plants
• Mr Jonathan Finch - Thesis title - The co-evolution and maintenance of obligate pollination mutualisms in the Australian Phyllantheae
• Ms Patricia Gilarte Padilla - Thesis title - Role of soil fauna in nitrogen cycling and plant succession in Eastern Australia natural plant communities
• Ms Nicola Hanrahan - Thesis title - The acoustic ecology of the ghost bat (Macroderma gigas): form, function and applied uses of vocalisations
• Ms Katie Howard - Thesis title - Extinction of Turtles in the River Murray: Consequences and Solutions
• Mr Ali Ijaz - Thesis title - A bioinformatics pipeline for improved analysis of shotgun metagenomic data 
• Mr Walter Israel - Thesis title - Regulation and Diversification of C₄ Photosynthesis
• Ms Vanya Jha - Thesis title - Fox ecology and species interaction: from Sydney Harbour to the Blue Mountains
• Mr Alihan Katlav - Thesis title - The role of reproductive parasites in the biology of invasive pest thrips
• Ms Leah Koloadin - Thesis title - Xylem Pit Membrane Physiology in Callitris Species
• Mr Dushan Kumarathunge - Thesis title - Scaling the impact of temperature on overall plant growth: A modeling approach
• Mr Ximeng Li - Thesis title - Identifying regions of high drought mortality risk for tree species
• Ms Elle McDonald - Thesis title - Genetic co-variation and fitness consequences of resting energy expenditure in mice
• Mr Robert Mueller - Thesis title - The ecology and evolution of microbial symbioses in Australian ambrosia beetles.
• Ms Varsha Pathare - Thesis title - Which plant types will benefit the most in a high [CO₂] world?
• Ms Jennifer Peters - Thesis title - Hydraulic function of Australian woody plants; surviving and recovering from drought
• Ms Johanna Pihlblad - Thesis title - Mechanisms by which nitrogen availability for plants changes under elevated CO₂
• Mr Juan Piñeiro Nevado - Thesis title - Effects of elevated atmospheric CO₂ on fine root production and activity in a P-limited Australian mature woodland.
• Mr Desi Quintans - Thesis title - How do Plant-Insect interactions change along steep environmental gradients?
• Mr Alexis Renchon - Thesis title - Global Warming
• Mr Rohan Riley - Thesis title - Plant and fungal traits interact to control Mycorrhizal outcomes in a multifunctional context
• Mr Giles Ross - Thesis title - Soil invertebrate diversity in Cumberland Plain Woodlands: effects of restoration and CO₂
• Ms Bronwen Roy - Thesis title - Assessing pathogen risks to honeybees and native bees in NSW
• Ms Julia Ryeland - Thesis title - Evolutionary ecology, conservation biology and management of emus
• Mr Julius Sagun - Thesis title - Regulation and diversification of C₄ photosynthesis
• Ms Tracey Steinrucken - Thesis title - To determine the mechanism for dieback in the invasive tree Parkinsonia Aculeata
• Mr Christopher Todd - Thesis title - The ecology and conservation of the critically endangered Christmas Island Flying-Fox
• Mrs Chanda Trivedi - Thesis title - Can ecology theory help to unravel microbial regulation of soil function?
• Ms Anita Wesolowski - Thesis title - Linking phenotypic and genotypic techniques to select tree genotypes that exhibit maximum productivity in the CO₂- enriched world of tomorrow
• Ms Johanna Wong - Thesis title - Identification of key regulatory signals in symbiotic ectomycorrhizal fungi:eucalypts interactions
• Mr Deane Woruba - Thesis title - Development of probiotics to increase adult Queensland fruit fly male performance as part of the sterile insect technique
• Mr Jinyan (Jim) Yang - Thesis title - Predicting LAI: What leaf area do plants need and how do they decide?

Graduates

• Doctor Honglang Duan - Thesis Title - How will the main and interactive effects of elevated [CO₂] and elevated temperature affect tree response to drought and drought-induced tree mortality?
• Doctor Benjamin Feit - Thesis title - Can Water Exclusion Limit the Ecological Impacts of Cane Toads?
• Doctor Sarah Facey - Thesis title - Resilience vs. decline: precipitation and atmospheric change drive contrasting responses in invertebrate communities
• Doctor Adam Frew - Thesis title - How the soil environment affects root feeding scarabs with particular emphasis on the canegrub
• Doctor Caroline Fromont - Thesis title - Molecular ecology, geography and species interactions of Mycopsylla insects with their bacterial endosymbionts, parasitoids and host fig trees
• Doctor Andrew Gherlenda - Thesis title -  Effects of CO₂ and temperature on Eucalyptus insect herbivores from individuals to communities
• Doctor Christopher Gordon - Thesis title - Dingo (Canis dingo) extirpation and associated trophic restructuring as a mechanism influencing shrub encroachment in arid Australia?
• Doctor Aidan Hall - Thesis title - Ecology and evolution of Cardiaspina psyllids, their bacterial endosymbionts and parasitoid wasps
• Doctor Guomin Huang - Thesis title - Differential response to climate change among populations for woody plant species: An ecological and physiological approach
• Doctor Kerry Keniry - Thesis title - Climate change impacts on ectomycorrhizal fungi associated with Australian eucalypts.
• Doctor Peter Kern - Thesis title - Wolbachia in Eurema butterflies: endosymbiont effects on host sex ratios and population genetics
• Mr Shiva Khanal - Thesis title - Quantifying post-fire recovery of forest canopy structure and its environmental drivers using satellite image time-series.
• Doctor Yan-Shih Lin - Thesis title - How will Eucalyptus tree species respond to global climate change?: CO₂ responses and seasonal temperature adjustment.
• Doctor Yaojie Lu - Thesis title - Optimal and Competitive Stomatal Behaviour
• Doctor Catarina Martins - Thesis title - Identifying drivers of greenhouse gas flux feedback responses to global change.
• Doctor Jennifer Morrow - Thesis title - Molecular studies of Wolbachia and sex-determination genes in Australian Bactrocera species - complementary approaches to improved fruit fly control
• Doctor Duong Thi Nguyen - Thesis title -  Genetic diversity, reproductive systems and endosymbionts of two invasive thrips species.
• Doctor Linh Nguyen - Thesis title - Cotton Farming and N Cycling: Adaptation to Climate Change
• Doctor Josephine Ontedhu - Thesis title - Interactive effects of elevated carbon dioxide concentration, temperature and soil P on growth and physiology of eucalypts.
• Doctor Harshini Pinto - Thesis title - Resource use efficiency of C₄ grasses with different evolutionary origins.
• Doctor Smriti Rayu - Thesis title - The interactions between xenobiotics and soil microbial communities
• Doctor Jessica Rigg - Thesis title - Microbial influences on the conservation and recovery of the Wollemi Pine
• Doctor James Ryalls - Thesis title - The impacts of climate change and belowground herbivory on aphids via primary metabolites
• Doctor Balasaheb Sonawane - Thesis title - Environmental regulation of CO₂ concentrating mechanisms in C₄ grasses with different biochemical subtypes
• Doctor Timothy Sutton - Thesis title - Evolutionary ecology of fig wasps associated with the Port Jackson fig