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.
- Ms Claire Allison - Thesis title - Stingless Bees as Crop Pollinators
- Ms Samantha Andres - Thesis title - Addressing drivers of dieback in an endangered tree species, persoonia hirsuta (hairy geebung)
- Mr Yazen Al-Salman - Thesis title - Determinants of Leaf Water Use Efficiency in the C4 Crop Sorghum Bicolor
- Ms Sidra Anwar - Thesis title - A carotenoid-derived signal controls root architecture in Arabidopsis
- Mr Sitaram Aryal - Thesis title - Interactions of Entomopathogens and Australian Fruit Fly
- Ms Vicky Austin - Thesis title - Investigating the structure and function of mimetic song in female superb lyrebirds (Menura novaehollandiae)
- Ms Diana Backes - Thesis title - The Plasticity of the Thermal Tolerance of Horticultural Species and their Susceptibility to Heatwaves
- Ms Fiona Backhouse - Thesis title - Explaining geographic variation in the multimodal display of the Albert's lyrebird (Menura alberti)
- Ms Kirsten Ball - Thesis title - Nutrient use efficiency and carbon sequestration in the plant-soil environment: novel application of spectral data to inform and optimise agroecosystem management
- Ms Alice Barratt - Thesis title - Thermal ecology of the bare-nosed wombat: linking physiology, behaviour and conservation
- Mr Urs Benning - Thesis title - Regulation of Photosynthesis by Sugar Sensing in C3 and C4 Plants
- Ms Olivia Bernauer - Thesis title - Insect Pollination of Crops
- Mr James Bickerstaff - Thesis title - Discovering the weevil within (trees): The diversity, phylogeography, and ecology of Pinhole Borers (Curulionidae, Platypodinae)
- Mr Fikadu Biru - Thesis title - Effect of CO2 on Si uptake and how this affects physical traits and herbivore attack
- Ms Karen Catunda - Thesis title - Nutritional ecology of pasture systems under climate extremes
- Ms Anthea Challis - Thesis title - Genotypic variation in Marri may facilitate physiological tolerance to drought
- Mr Manjunatha Chandregowda - Thesis title - Pasture systems ecology and climate extremes
- Mr Yogesh Chaudhari - Thesis title - Regulation of C4 Photosynthesis by Sugar Sensing
- Mr Matt Chaumont - Thesis title - Cultural evolution in lyrebirds
- Ms Zineb Choury - Thesis title - Determining the acclimation capacity of Australian rainforest trees growing in warm and cool climates
- Ms Ximena Ciblis Stewart - Thesis title - Down to earth defence: How mutualistic fungi augment silicon-based defence against above-and belowground insect pests
- Mr Donovin Coles - Thesis title - Controlling Contagion: Identifying and targeting genetic loci in agricultural crops to improve broad-spectrum disease resistance
- Ms Anne-Cecile Colin - Thesis title - Saving Our Species: Adaptive Capacity to Climate Change
- Ms Chathurika Daulagala - Thesis title - Ecological Interactions of Rhizobia and Their Effects on the Nitrogen Nutrition of Field Pea
- Mr Brendan Delroy - Thesis title - Effects of Arbuscular Mycorrhiza on the accumulation of Salicylic Acid in B. distachyon root systems
- Ms Annabel Dorrestein - Thesis title - The social organisation of the Christmas Island flying-fox (Pteropus melanotus natalis)
- Mr Charlie Filippou -Thesis title - Bioprospecting for fungal-based biocontrol agents
- Mrs Kathryn Fuller - Thesis title - The Biogeography of Fire: Mapping Key Fuel Types Across NSW
- Ms Wajira Galhena - Thesis title - Harnessing emerging microbiome technology to improve farm productivity
- Ms Alice Gauthey - Thesis title - Non-Invasive Imaging of Drought-Induced Cavitation in Plants
- Ms Patricia Gilarte Padilla - Thesis title - Role of soil fauna in nitrogen cycling and plant succession in Eastern Australia natural plant communities
- Ms Lea Hannah - Thesis title - Insect Pollination of Almonds
- Ms Nicola Hanrahan - Thesis title - The acoustic ecology of the ghost bat (Macroderma gigas): form, function and applied uses of vocalisations
- Mr Kamrul Hassan - Thesis title - Global change impacts on plant-soil feedbacks: consequences for ecosystem functioning and stability
- Ms Xin He - Thesis title - Physiological and molecular insight into fruit development and quality of Capsicum annuum L. under Smart Glass and CO2 Treatments
- Mr Richard Hill - Thesis title - Genes beyond organisms: Using machine learning and pan-omic datasets to unravel the complex perception/response systems of plants during microbial symbiosis
- Ms Katie Howard - Thesis title - Extinction of Turtles in the River Murray: Consequences and Solutions
- Ms Chioma Igwenagu - Thesis title - Soil Nutrient Management & Microbial Ecology in Pasture Systems under climate extremes
- Mr Tarikul Islam - Thesis title - How does silicon in plants affect insect effector proteins?
- Mr Walter Israel - Thesis title - Carbon isotope discrimination and stomatal function in C4 grasses
- Mr Vinod Jacob - Thesis title - The Effects of Elevated Temperature and Drought on the Productivity and Sustainability of Pasture Systems
- Mr Ramesha Jayaramaiah - Thesis title - Metagenomics approaches to predict efficiency of bioremediation
- Mr Alihan Katlav - Thesis title - Sex allocation in Kelly's citrus thrips, Pezothrips kellyanus: mechanisms, constraints and the role of endosymbionts
- Ms Simranjit Kaur - Thesis title - Plant-Microbiome interactions and communication
- Mr Shiva Khanal - Thesis title - Objective quantification of national forest cover and carbon stocks in support of the REDD+ Programme - a methodological study combining remote sensing, forest inventory data and statistical modeling
- Mr Mohammad Kibria - Thesis title - Urban Forest: Testing Tree Performance to Future Hotter and Drier Conditions
- Ms Leah Koloadin - Thesis title - Intraspecific and Interspecific Variation in the Xylem Functional Traits of Callitris Species Growing along an Aridity Gradient
- Mr Ivan Kotzur - Thesis title - Understanding and mapping how thermal and dietary constraints combine to restrict koala habitat and determine refugia
- Mr Arjunan Krishnananthaselvan - Thesis title - Brown is the new green: Grassland responses to heat and drought
- Ms Jiayu Li - Thesis title - Plant and Soil Microbiome Interactions
- Mr Premchand Maisnam - Thesis title - Drought impacts on microbial assemblage structure and functional attributes
- Mr Scott Nacko - Thesis title - Stingless Bees as Crop Pollinators (Temperate)
- Mr Jwalit Nayak - Thesis title - A Carotenoid-derived Metabolite Regulates RNA Structure and Carotenoid Gene Expression Controlling Pro-vitamin a Accumulation in Crops
- Mr Peter Nzie - Thesis title - Stingless Bees as Crop Pollinators (Glasshouse)
- Mr Osazee Oyanoghafo - Thesis title - Adaptive Capacity to Drought in the Diverse and Climatically Variable Plant Species in the Proteaceae Family
- Mr Lucky Paudel - Thesis title - National Tree Genomics - Functional genotype predicition for horticulture
- Ms Victoria Perez - Thesis title - Can Eucalyptus drought vulnerability be explained by climate of origin, life history and functional traits?
- Ms Mahfuza Pervin - Thesis title - Deciphering how mechanical stress can prime plant defence mechanisms and train a hardier crop plant
- Ms Johanna Pihlblad - Thesis title - Mechanisms by which nitrogen availability for plants changes under elevated CO2
- Ms Caroline Ponsonby - Thesis Title - Flies as Crop Pollinators
- Mr Rocky Putra - Thesis title - The Functional Role of Silicon in Legumes: From Root Nodulation to Community level Responses
- Mr Desi Quintans - Thesis title - How do Plant-Insect interactions change along steep environmental gradients?
- Ms Kumari Rajapaksha - Thesis title - Searching for Meaningful Belowground Indicators of Heath in Threatened Ecological Communities
- Mr Alejandro Rios Villamil - Thesis title - Diet Sexual Conflict and the Evolution of Lifespan in the Sexes
- Ms Katie Rolls - Thesis title - Local adaptation and species distribution limits along climatic gradients
- Mr Giles Ross - Thesis title - Phylogeographic Analysis of Antarctic Soil Invertebrates
- Mrs Amy Rowles - Thesis title - Seasonal Migration of Australian Tree Roosting Microbats
- 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
- Ms Sunayana Sajith - Thesis title - Interdisciplinary studies on the uptake of new approaches to crop pollination
- Mr Md Golam Sarwer - Thesis title - Impact of Ecological Changes on Sydney Rock Oyster Genetics and Microbiomes
- Ms Lena Alice Schmidt - Thesis title - Selective floral enhancement of native flora for healthy and diverse pollinator populations in Australian agro-ecosystems under climate change
- Ms Mahmuda Sharmin - Thesis title - Green Accounting: Evaluating the benefits of urban greening under future climates
- Mr Stephen Sharpe - Thesis title - Biotic Mortality Factors of Australian Fruit Fly
- Mr Gaurav Singh - Thesis title - Stingless Bees as Crop Pollinators
- Mr Pankaj Singh - Thesis title - Plant and Soil Microbiome Interactions
- Ms Hannah Smart - Thesis title - Evolution of Dynamic Anti-predator Behaviour of Insects
- Ms Magnolia Song - Thesis title - Modelling the Carbon Balance of Australian Forests
- Mr Matthew Stanton - Thesis title - Unravelling the roles of climatic and dietary specialisation in creating and maintaining species and population boundaries in brushtail possums
- Ms Elisa Stefaniak - Thesis title - Do plants hedge their bets? Modelling optimal plant behaviour
- Ms Emiko Stuart - Thesis title - The effect of mycorrhizal cheaters on plant:fungal symbiosis
- Mr Jerzy Szejgis - Thesis title - Causes and consequences of biogeochemical mismatches during drought
- Ms Sharon Towett-Kirui - Thesis title - Wolbachia and other Endosymbionts of Australian Fruit Fly
- Ms Jenendra Wadduwage - Thesis title - Impacts and Mechanisms of Biostimulants on Soil Health and Crop Yield
- Ms Melissa Walker - Thesis title - The physiological and environmental drivers of grey-headed Flying Fox movements
- Mr Jamie Waterman - Thesis title - Using Simulated Herbivory to Mechanistically Understand Inducible Specialised Metabolites and Silicon-based Plant Defences
- Ms Natascha Weinberger - Thesis title - Friends with benefits, or a reluctant threesome? Plant-microbial partnerships and their effects on crop pathogens
- Mr John Whale - Thesis title - A scientific basis for assisted gene migration under climate change.
Graduates
- Doctor Yagiz Alagoz - Thesis title - Feedback Regulation of Carotenoid Biosynthesis by an Apocarotenoid Sensing RNA Structural Switch
- Doctor Kirk Barnett - Thesis title - Hidden herbivory, precarious precipitation and punished pastures: Australia's grasslands under root herbivory and altered rainfall
- Doctor Sarah Beck - Thesis title - The spatial dynamics of below-ground fungal communities: a study of pattern and process
- Doctor Marvin Beckert - Thesis title - Fractionation methods to estimate the carbon sequestration potential of highly organic soils impacted by regular burning
- Doctor Aimee Bourne - Thesis title - Forest ecosystem water use: does species identity and ecosystem composition matter?
- Doctor Eric Brenya - Thesis title - Elucidating thigmomorphogenesis: An epigenetic phenomenon of mechanical stress acclimation in plants
- Doctor Kylie Brice - Thesis title - Bugs in "Bears"- are Mismatches between Diets and Gut Microbial Communities a Bugbear for Translocated Koalas?
- Doctor Lisa Bromfield - Thesis title - Individual Strategies to Cope with Environmental Change: A test of the pace-of-life syndrome hypothesis
- Doctor Courtney Campany - Thesis title - Resource allocation in Eucalyptus
- Doctor Laura Castaneda Gomez - Thesis title - Soil organic matter dynamics under elevated CO2: mechanisms of impact
- Doctor Sachin Chavan -Thesis title - Responses of wheat photosynthesis and yield to elevated CO2 under heat and water stress
- Doctor Jeffrey Chieppa - Thesis title - Rainfall variability, plant functional traits and productivity in grasslands
- Doctor Nicholas Colman - Thesis title - Morphological variation and ecological interactions of Australia's apex predator (Canis dingo)
- Doctor Federica Colombo - Thesis title - Diversity, Functioning and Stability in Microbial Communities
- Doctor Danielle Creek - Thesis title - Understanding the coordination of hydraulic strategies with other traits in determining plant survival under drought
- Doctor Nathalie Curlevski - Thesis title - The impacts of forest management practices and climate change on soil fungal communities.
- Doctor Coline Deveautour - Thesis title - Effects of Precipitation Regimes on Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Fungal Communities
- Doctor Namraj Dhami - Thesis title - Environmental and developmental regulation of carotenoid metabolism in Arabidopsis leaves
- 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 Jonathan Finch - Thesis title - Dynamics of an Obligate Pollination Mutualism in the Australian Phyllanthaceae
- 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 Ali Ijaz - Thesis title - Taxonomic and Environmental Annotation of Bacterial 16S rRNA gene sequences via Shannon Entropy and Database Metadata Terms
- 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 Dushan Kumarathunge - Thesis title - Predicting the effect of temperature on tree growth
- Doctor Ximeng Li - Thesis title - Hydraulic traits and drought mortality risk of tree species
- 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 Elle McDonald - Thesis title - The Biological Importance of Individual Variation in Metabolic Responses to Environmental Conditions
- 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 Robert Mueller - Thesis title - Characterisation of fungal symbionts and microbial communities of Austroplatypus incompertus (Platypodinae) and other Australian ambrosia beetle species
- 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 Varsha Pathare - Thesis title - Grass and herb photosynthesis and productivity in a resource-limited Eucalyptus woodland under elevated atmospheric CO2
- Doctor Jennifer Peters - Thesis title - Hydraulic Vulnerability of Australian Forests to Drought
- Doctor Juan Piñeiro Nevado - Thesis title - Effects of elevated CO2 on fine root dynamics and nutrient acquisition strategies under P-limitation
- 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 Alexis Renchon - Thesis title - Constraints on Ecosystem Carbon and Water Flux Estimates in Temperate Australian Evergreen Forest
- Doctor Jessica Rigg - Thesis title - Microbial influences on the conservation and recovery of the Wollemi Pine
- Doctor Rohan Riley - Thesis title - Towards a predictable framework of mycorrhizal phenotypes under environmental stress
- Mr Giles Ross - Thesis title - Impacts of elevated CO2 and ecosystem restoration on belowground biodiversity in Cumberland Plain Woodlands
- Doctor James Ryalls - Thesis title - The impacts of climate change and belowground herbivory on aphids via primary metabolites
- Doctor Julius Sagun - Thesis title - Environmental Regulation of Energetics of C4 Photosynthesis
- Doctor Tracey Steinrucken - Thesis title - To determine the mechanism for dieback in the invasive pant, Parkinsonia aculeata
- 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
- Doctor Christopher Todd - Thesis title - The ecology and conservation of the Christmas Island flying-fox (Pteropus natalis)
- Doctor Chanda Trivedi - Thesis title - Application of Ecological Theory to Explain Microbial Regulation of Soil Function
- Doctor Anita Wesolowski - Thesis title - The effects of drought, heat and elevated atmospheric CO2 on physiology and growth of Eucalyptus – Does climate-of-origin matter?
- Doctor Johanna Wong - Thesis title - An exploration of the molecular signals and their effects on the belowground interaction between Eucalyptus grandis and soil fungi of different lifestyles
- Doctor Deane Woruba - Thesis title - Characterisation and isolation of gut bacterial communities from Queensland fruit fly (Bactrocera tryoni) across different environments to improve the sterile insect technique
- Doctor Jinyan (Jim) Yang - Thesis title - Modelling carbon uptake of Australian evergreen ecosystems under rising [CO2] and water limitation