This week the School of Agriculture, Food and Wine held their Annual Postgraduate Symposium. This event provides a forum for mid-candidature students to give an update on their research in preparation for the Annual Review of Progress. It also provides an opportunity for the Waite community to become familiar with the broad range of interesting problems our postgraduates are tackling.
This year, 35 postgraduate students gave 15 minute presentations on their projects over two days, grouped into themes that broadly align with the School’s research strengths. Sessions were chaired by members of the Postgraduate Association of Waite Students (PAWS) Committee and other students.
The program also featured guest speakers Mr Craig Johns (Deputy Director, Centre for Global Food and Resources) and Dr Scott Groom (postdoctoral fellow in the School of Agriculture Food and Wine) presented on the implementation of a new training and development program for PhD students at the University of Adelaide.
Prizes of up to $200 each were also awarded to students in a number of categories. This event was organised by the PAWS Committee and the School Postgraduate Committee.
Well done to all the students and congratulations to all the following prize winners.
Olivia Cousins, Getting to the Root of the Problem: Soil, Nitrogen, Water and Root Dynamics – Crop Science Society of SA prize for best presentation on Agronomy and Broadacre Agriculture
Cindy Callens, The Effects of Heat Stress on the Reproductive Organs of Three European Barley Varieties – Australian Grains Technology prize for best presentation on Cereal Research
Kara Levin, Uprooting the enemy: new insight into cereal cyst nematode infections in bread wheat – ARC Centre of Excellence in Plant Cell Walls prize for best presentation on Plant Cell Wall Biology
Deborah Devis, The evolution and function of two major rice allergens, Ory s 1 and Ory s 12 – ARC Centre of Excellence in Plant Energy Biology prize for best presentation on Plant Cell Physiology
Chandnee Ramkissoon, Optimising Fertiliser Formulations for Selenium Biofortification of Wheat Grain – FOODplus prize for best presentation on Food and Nutrition
Pastor Fabres, Omics Approach to Study the Interaction between the Shiraz and the Barossa Valley Terroir – ARC Training Centre for Innovative Wine Production prize for best presentation on Viticulture and Oenology
Christina Asanopoulos, Carbon storage potential in vegetated coastal sediments and the impacts of agricultural run-off – Soil Science SA prize for best presentation on Soil Science
Benjamin Keiller, Investigating Australian Saltbush as a Potential Novel Feedstock in Hydrothermal Biofuels – PAWS prize for Audience Choice
Caterina Selva, The Benefits of Sterility: Characterizing Multiovary Mutants for Hybrid Seed Production – The ARC Industrial Transformation Research Hub for Wheat in a Hot Dry Climate prize for best prize in Wheat Research
The Sally and Andrew Smith Prize for Best Overall Talk was jointly awarded to:
Sijia Guo, Source-sink dynamics during capsicum ripening
Benjamin Keiller, Investigating Australian Saltbush as a Potential Novel Feedstock in Hydrothermal Biofuels
