Last 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, 34 postgraduate students gave 10-minute presentations on their projects, 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.
The program also featured guest speaker Lieke van der Hulst a freelance science communicator who studied for her PhD at Waite, analysing grapevine response to smoke exposure. Nowadays, Lieke is working in the WIC winemaking team at Waite as well as writing about the South Australian wine industry for multiple online outlets.
Prizes 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.
Emma Aspin – PAWS audience choice day 1
Sally and Andrew Smith Award prize for best presentation at the symposium – selected by School Academics on behalf of Waite Research Institute
Daniel McKay – PAWS audience choice day 2
Elizabeth Keirnan – Australasian Plant Pathology Society prize for best presentation in plant pathology
Austin Trueman – China-Australia Joint Lab for Soil Ecological Health and Remediation prize for the best presentation in Soil Ecological Health & Remediation
Alicia Merriam – ARC Research Hub ‘Legumes for Sustainable Agriculture’ prize for Sustainable Agriculture
Chaoqun Shen – Australian Grain Technologies for the best presentation in Plant Genetics and Research
Natalja Ivanova – ARC Training Centre for Innovative Wine Production
Haoyu Lou – ARC Centre of Excellence – Plant Energy Biology prize for the best presentation in plant cell physiology