Round 1 scholarship students

Congratulations to the final selection of 23 scholarship students who will be supervised and supported by the WA Agricultural Research Collaboration’s (WAARC’s) university members – Curtin University, Murdoch University, and The University of Western Australia.

WAARC Director Kelly Pearce said the Collaboration was encouraged by the level of interest shown in its scholarship program and the quality of applicants and research topics.

“Our postgraduate scholarship students will be part of a multi-organisational network of talented WAARC researchers and industry leaders focused on projects that respond to emerging challenges and opportunities within our agriculture and food sector,” Dr Pearce said.

“The PhD topics chosen by our scholarship recipients are innovative and diverse – we look forward to seeing the results of these transformative research projects over the coming years.”

Round 1 top-up scholarship recipients

Please see a full list of the scholarship students, their university placements, and research topics below:

Curtin University

• Heidi Mippy – Seed and plant production of Noongar plants with cultural significance for food and medicine
• Sabrina Cuellar – Assessing and understanding the impact of agrochemical use on soil health in Western Australia
• Varthini Punithan – Exploring the effect of host phenotype on fungicide dynamics and its efficacy against barley net blotch
• Selassie Ahiakpa – Assessing the potential of native Australian legume (Faboideae) species as grain crops – a proof of concept for new crop development
• Sundara Link – Optimising genetic resistance to barley net blotch through mutagenesis
• Helio de Jesus Cuamba – Developing an APSIM next-generation module for lupins (Lupinus angustifolius L.) and assessing economic viability in Western Australia

Murdoch University

• Georgia Welsh – The effect of providing edible shelter (in the form of shrubs or crops) during lambing on ewe behaviour and lamb survival
• Celia Spyridaki – Machine learning-assisted genomic prediction to reinforce chickpea breeding
• Rakshith Gowda – Deciphering the genetic basis of heat tolerance in wheat
• Hitashi Aggarwal – Unlocking the potential of nitrogen use efficiency (NUE) genes in wheat using CRISPR/Cas9
• Syed Muhammad Ali Zahid – Training generalist predators: investigating how dietary experience influences predatory behaviour of ladybird beetle
• Yunlong Huo – Developing a national standard protocol for computed tomography (CT) Lean Meat Yield measurement in beef for the training and validation of other beef LMY predictive technologies
• Ben Camer-Pesci – Seaweed solutions to dairy farm effluent: bioremediation and bioproduction
• Zixun Wang – Identify and characterise the CMV disease resistance gene in narrow-leafed lupin (Lupinus angustifolius L.)

The University of Western Australia

• Darcy Lefroy – Human factors affecting the adoption and diffusion of emerging biotechnologies
• Chloe Rout – Evaluating the benefits and overcoming barriers to adoption of intercropping and companion cropping of canola or cereals with legumes
• Montana Walsh Baddeley – Understanding the genetic factors influencing meat quality and performance of rangelands beef cattle throughout the WA supply chain
• Roberto Lujan Rocha – A novel approach for scalable weed prediction and mapping to enable integrated weed management in Western Australian cropping systems
• Saira Azmat – Effect of phosphorus availability and root morphological traits on adaptive responses to salinity stress in barley (Hordeum vulgare)
• Mahnaz Afsar – Developing demand-driven extension strategies to improve adoption of precision agriculture technologies in South-West Western Australia
• Yusi Zhang – Assessing and enhancing pasture and rangeland resilience in Western Australia: integrative approaches for productivity mapping and climate impact analysis
• Angelia Tanu – Enhancing field establishment potential for the next generation of climate-resilient canola
• Huyen Pham – Unravelling the impact of rhizosheath size in wheat (Triticum aestivum L) on drought and nutrient use efficiency