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Research Fellows
The Institute's research fellows are early career researchers who are successful in their chosen scientific field, and are well regarded by their supervisors and colleagues.
Doctor Mike Aspinwall
Dr Mike Aspinwall is a Research Fellow in the Institute. His research centres on leaf-level carbon dynamics, biochemistry, and water relations, and he is interested in forest genetics, gene expression – physiology linkages within the Ecosystem Function and Integration research theme.
Doctor Kristine Crous
Dr Kristine Crous is a Research Fellow within the Institute. Her research involves studying the processes controlling net primary production of Eucalyptus woodland and how phosphorus availability limits tree growth, photosynthesis, and their responsiveness to elevated atmospheric CO2 (at EucFACE) within the Ecosystem Function and Integration research theme.
Doctor Jane DeGabriel
Dr Jane DeGabriel is a Research Fellow within the Institute. Her research relates to the evolution and ecology of insect-plant interactions and the effects of environmental change on the stability of these relationships within the Plants, Animals and Interactions theme.
Doctor John Drake
Dr John Drake is a Research Fellow in the Institute. His research centres on biogeochemisty and ecophysiology, and he is interested in the interactions between soil nutrient cycling and plant physiological responses to climate change within the Ecosystem Function and Integration research theme.
Doctor Barbara Drigo
Dr Barbara Drigo is a Research Fellow in the Institute. Her research interests centre on Plant-Microbe Interactions; Microbial Ecology; Molecular Ecology; and Climate Change within the Soil Biology & Genomics research theme.
Doctor Teresa Gimeno
Dr Teresa Gimeno is a Research Fellow within the Institute. Her research is aimed at elucidating the hydrological consequences of increased atmospheric CO2 within the Ecosystem Function and Integration research theme.
Doctor Sara Hortal Botifoll
Dr Sara Hortal Botifoll is a Research Fellow in the institute. Her research interests centre on the ecology of soil microorganisms, particularly ectomycorrhizal fungi which live in symbiotic association with plants, within the Soil Biology and Genomics research theme.
Doctor Amit Khachane
Dr Amit Khachane is a Research Fellow in the Institute. He is a Bioinformatics scientist within the Soil Biology and Genomics research theme.
Doctor Catriona Macdonald
Dr Catriona Macdonald is a Research Fellow in the Instiute. Her research interests are focused on understanding soil microbial ecology and function under environmental change and their interaction with plant communities within the Soil Biology & Genomics research theme.
Doctor Loïc Nazaries
Dr Loïc Nazaries is a Research Fellow in the Institute. His research interests centre within the Soil Biology & Genomics research theme.
Doctor Yui Osanai
Dr Yui Osanai is a Research Fellow within the Institute. Her research interests are focused on understanding soil microbial ecology and function under environmental change and their interaction with plant communities within the Soil Biology & Genomics research theme.
Doctor Sebastian Pfautsch
Dr Sebastian Pfautsch is a Research Fellow in the Institute. His research centres on a range of techniques to elucidate how environmental change, particularly climatic extremes and the lack of water impacts on tree dominated systems within the Ecosystem Function and Integration research theme.
Doctor Jonathan Plett
Dr Jonathan Plett is a Research Fellow in the institute. His research broadly aims to identify and understand how signals are sent and perceived by plants and their associated microbiota to coordinate development and enable this ecosystem to survive under less than ideal conditions, within the Soil Biology and Genomics research theme.
Doctor Robert Sharwood
Dr Robert Sharwood is a Research Fellow in the Institute. His research focuses on the molecular engineering of higher plant chloroplasts to improve many facets of plant productivity within the Plants, Animals and Interactions research theme.
Doctor Anna Simonin
Dr Anna Simonin is a Research Fellow within the Institute. Her research is broadly focused on nutrient translocation in fungal colonies and how this influences ecosystem, agricultural, and industrial processes within the Soil Biology & Genomics research theme.
Doctor Pankaj Trivedi
Dr Pankaj Trivedi is a Research Fellow in the Institute. His research aims to apply state-of-art environmental genomics strategies to identify microbial drivers and key modulators of soil carbon dynamics in grain cropping systems within the Soil Biology and Genomics research theme.
