Our researchers

Rajeev Varshney is responsible for providing oversight, overall direction for R&D activities, promoting, marketing, and raising funds for research operations and major equipment in the CCFI. Rajeev is available to answer questions about the Centre and its operation, including incubation of companies and contract R&D.

Anu Chitikineni manages research operations, budget management and oversees data generation dealing with sequencing and genotyping technologies. In addition, Anu organises various events, seminars, training courses and capacity building activities for SABC in collaboration with the Centre for Crop and Food Innovation (CCFI).

Dr. Vanika Garg is a postdoctoral research fellow specializing in bioinformatics and computational genomics at the CCFI. She earned her PhD in 2019 from the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics in India, where her research focused on unravelling stress responses of legume crops through multi-omics approaches. Her efforts have led to the development of significant genomic resources, including reference genomes, pangenomes, expression atlases, variation maps, markers, superior haplotypes, and candidate genes.

Dr Jingjuan Zhang is a Research Fellow at MU with more than 25 years of work experience in wheat research. She led four NUE field trials, collected and evaluated field data and used it for genetic analysis and identification of QTLs for NUE related traits as a part of the GRDC NUE project (UMU00048). She was a chief investigator for GRDC wheat drought project (UMU00039) and three other internal projects at MU. Currently, she is working on a joined GRDC project (WSU2303-001RTX) - Increasing intrinsic heat tolerance of wheat through improved genetics in the source-sink relationship.

Rhys Copeland is a Murdoch graduate who studied a PhD in Agricultural Biotechnology. He currently works as a Research Associate at the Centre for Crop and Food Innovation, where his research focuses on Horticulture and Cereal genomics.

Cassandria Fernandez finished PhD at UWA in 2023, and currently, she is a research associate with Murdoch University. She has experience in bioinformatics and computational genomics for the last five years. She specialises in plant genomics and has a particular fondness for pangenomes.

Professor Chengdao Li has focused on developing new breeding technologies and integrating them to produce commercial barley varieties. He led the world’s trend of transitioning from conventional breeding technologies to utilising doubled haploids, molecular selection, genomic breeding and gene-editing.

I have worked on projects including barley pre-harvest and seed dormancy; barley grain quality improvement; barley adaptation to acidic soil; Barley Pangenome; Oats Pangenome. I’ve also extended my expertise to Lupin and Serradella genome sequencing. Organisational affiliations: Western Crop Genetics Alliance, Centre for Crop and Food Innovation, School of Agricultural Sciences, Murdoch University

Bio coming soon

Dr Wendy Hunt is the Academic Chair of Food Science and Nutrition at Murdoch University. She has over 25 years of experience in the field of Food Science, having roles in management, teaching, research and industry-based roles. Her research interests are in food and health and she has published in fibre and satiety, grains, seafood and health (h-index 10).

Associate Professor Vicky Solah is the Academic Chair, Food Science and Nutrition at Murdoch University. Vicky has worked for 37 years in research, teaching, supervision, industry linked mentoring roles, academic leadership and management. Vicky’s research and teaching has focused on cereal chemistry, quality and health aspects of grain and dairy food, sensory evaluation and the role food composition in satiety and health.

As a Research Scientist over ten years, I have experiences in diverse areas including the association between the structure/function of polysaccharides/dietary fibres and lipid metabolism and gut health in humans; transferring fundamental science and technological advances into business opportunities; developing plant-based food products with nutritional values; and opportunity-scoping to fight food waste.

Richard Harper is a Professor in the Food Futures Institute. His research is devoted to devising new approaches to soil, water and biodiversity management; an area where globally there are many long-standing and intractable problems. His major focus since 1995 has been on unlocking carbon markets to drive landscape-scale change; this both solving these intractable problems but also dealing with global greenhouse gas emissions and allowing governments and industry to meet their ambitious emissions reduction pledges.

Bio to come

Tona Sanchez-Palacios is a Research Fellow at the School of Agricultural Sciences |Food Futures Institute at Murdoch University in Western Australia. Tona's research interests are in crop mineral nutrition and understanding the mechanisms of metal tolerance in plants. Tona has been involved in projects with the Australian mining industry on developing an effective phyto-capping layer to cover mineral waste from mining using fast-growing metal-tolerant plants.

Ferdous Sohel is a Professor in Information Technology at Murdoch University, Australia. He was a Research Assistant Professor/Research Fellow at The University of Western Australia. His research interests include artificial intelligence, image processing, machine learning, computer vision, digital agriculture, and digital medicine.

Bio to come

Dr Penghao Wang is a bioinformatician and biostatistician. He has engaged in big data analytics research for more than 15 years. He is expert in analysing big data from heterogeneous sources, including Next-Generation Sequencing data, mass spectrometry data, and high-throughput genomics arrays. His main research interests in applying statistical and bioinformatics methods to the modelling and analysis in agriculture and biomedical science.

Prof Rudi Appels was awarded the Farrer Medal in 2022 for his Australia-wide/global leadership in determining the structure and function details of the wheat genome. His long and distinguished career in wheat genome research has provided significant agricultural breakthroughs, benefiting countless growers and the wider agricultural industry. His 27-year plant industry research career with CSIRO, and a further 17 years at Murdoch University, has included activity on chromosome structure and function in avian red blood cells, Drosophila, subclover, barley, rye and wheat.

Over a decades-long career, Prof Gupta has made a series of important contributions in the areas of cytotaxonomy, cytogenetics, mutation breeding, quantitative genetics, molecular biology, crop biotechnology and plant genomics. Highly-experienced with leadership in institution building of both higher education and R&D projects, he has set up an innovation teaching system, research laboratories with emphasis on toxicology and pharmacology translational research, and the startup of inter-institutional projects.

Peter Langridge is an eminent leader in the development and implementation of cereal breeding technologies, within Australia and internationally. He initiated the application of molecular marker technology in large cereal and legume breeding programs, technologies which were ultimately adopted by all major cereal breeding programs in Australia. Langridge also pioneered the introduction of plant functional genomics in Australia into crop improvement programs and was a member of a core group that initiated the international barley genome sequencing program.

Prof Aggarwal is an eminent scientist and influential policy maker in the area of biotechnology and agriculture in India. Currently with the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (Council of Scientific and Industrial Research) in Hyderabad, India, Prof Aggarwal is recognised for his skills and expertise in the fields of sequencing, conservation biology and genetics.

Dr Anthony has a special interest in innovation, entrepreneurship and plant breeding. She is a former Head of both Crop Enhancement Research at Zeneca and of Crop Protection Product Development & Regulatory Affairs for Seeds and Biotechnology. She spent her early research years in fungicide invention and is a named inventor on over 25 patents. Dr Anthony holds a PhD in plant pathology and crop improvement from the University of Wales and a Master’s degree in Business Management from Boston University. She is also an adjunct professor at the UWA’s Institute of Agriculture.

With extensive experience and expertise in the fields of plant breeding, biotechnology, and crop improvement, Prof. Kailash Bansal has also been involved in several national and international collaborations and projects related to agricultural research and development. He has many publications and awards to his credit, including the Rafi Ahmed Kidwai Award, Fellow of National Academy of Agricultural Sciences and Fellow of the National Academy of Sciences, India.

Associate Professor Alison Bentley’s research combines genetics and genomics to develop and deliver new tools and technology to improve plant breeding, crop production and adaptation to climate change. She recently joined ANU bringing 18 years’ experience including, most recently, three years as Director of the Global Wheat Program at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Centre (CIMMYT) in Mexico. She has also worked at the National Institute of Agricultural Botany in the UK, focused on translation of scientific breakthroughs into tangible impacts for the agrifood sector.

Jose Crossa works at the Biometrics and Statistics Unit conducting research on genomic models and models for genomic environment interaction to help CIMMYT researchers achieve their goals. He also teaches courses on statistical genetics.

Dr Eric Yirenkyi Danquah is a Ghanaian plant geneticist, the founding director of the West Africa Centre for Crop Improvement (WACCI) and former director of the Biotechnology Centre at the University of Ghana. His research centres on genetic diversity in crop plants and their associated pests, with an emphasis on molecular genetics and biotechnology for crop improvement. He also focuses on farmer's knowledge and plant breeding, technologies for food security in Africa, and training the next generation of research scientists.

Prof Andreas Graner has been a leading figure in international crop plant genomics research over the past four decades. His profound impact on crop genome analyses and gene bank genomics is widely acknowledged. His achievements extend from developing the first integrated RFLP map of barley; establishing the foundation of barley genome sequencing; advancing functional genomics of malting quality and pioneering the use of high-throughput phenomics. He has contributed significantly to global efforts on conservation and utilisation of plant genetic resources through genomics approaches.

Dr Mba worked for the FAO for 13 years where he led the Seeds and Plant Genetic Resources Team of NSP. He holds a PhD degree of in Plant Breeding and Genetics; a Postgraduate Diploma in Education and a BSc in Botany from the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, Nigeria.

Ms. Reade is the Director of Outreach at the Crawford Fund. With an early career working for a range of advocacy groups, and in addition to establishing the public awareness program for the Crawford Fund, Ms. Reade’s consultancy work is concentrated on the not-for-profit sector around agriculture, development, science & technology and environment policy, issues and events. She has developed and manages a master class in communications for scientists in developing countries.

Dr Dion is a wheat breeder with nearly 10 years’ experience breeding varieties suited to Western Australia. Dion has played a key role in growing and developing AGT’s WA operations to support its national barley and canola breeding programs, as well as supervising the lupin and udon breeding programs in WA. Prior to this role, he undertook a PhD and research project investigating the genetics behind drought and heat stress tolerance in bread wheat. Dion is a member of the Grain Industry of Western Australia (GIWA) Wheat Council.

Dr. Nalishebo Meebelo currently heads the Secretariat of the Regional Network of Agricultural Policy Research Institutes (ReNAPRI), and co-Chairs the Task Force on Food and Nutrition Security Data and Hunger Hotspots in the context of the COVID -19 pandemic, under the Regional Food Trade Coalition hosted by the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA). She has worked in the African agriculture arena for over 14 years, at national, regional, and continental levels, coordinating the implementation of African Union (AU) policy frameworks.

Dr Liu Xin is the General Manager of the North China region of BGI Group, a prominent genomics organization, known for its groundbreaking work in the field of genetics and bioinformatics. Dr. Liu Xin’s leadership contributes significantly to BGI’s mission of advancing knowledge and improving humanity through genomics research and applications.