ANU 2022 PhD Scholarship in Plant Molecular Biology

In 2021 the ANU Research School of Biology, in the ANU College of Science, may offer 2 awards known as the Laureate Postgraduate Research Scholarship. The objective of the award is to attract the highest calibre international and domestic students to pursue postgraduate research for a PhD degree within the Research School of Biology. Funding for this award is provided by Laureate Fellow Prof. Barry Pogson as part of Australian Research Council funding. Prof. Pogson's fellowship aims to produce transformative solutions targeting crop resilience and food security. The chloroplast, the site of photosynthesis, regulates a suite of cellular processes that control photosynthesis, growth and drought resilience. It is expected that a first ever blueprint of the suite of communication networks used by the chlorolast will be discovered. We will use synthetic biology to rewire the network in order to generate 'smart plants' that are higher-yielding and more resilient in both good and bad seasons by precisely switching on and off resilience.