About

I'm a Lecturer/Assistant Professor (US equivalent) studying how we can leverage microbes to improve soil health and plant fitness under drought stress. I look at the factors that govern microbial colonisation in soil and on plant roots and I develop methods to manipulate those pools of microbes. I enjoy performing community-level manipulations to identify how we can restore soil functions and how we can provide whole communities of microbes to plants to improve their stress tolerance. I am interested in both basic and applied questions, and I have experience in both field (i.e. research farms and agroecosystems) and laboratory settings.

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I have been trained in three institutions, under the guidance of Prof. Taryn Baurele (Cornell), Asst Prof. Terrence Bell (Uni of Toronto), and Profs. Maurizio Labbate and Justin Seymour (University of Technology Sydney). I have gained extensive experience and learning across multiple disciplines, including in: plant, soil and marine microbiology and molecular/synthetic biology.