Capacity & Expertise

The Waite employs more than 1,100 of Australia’s best researchers and technical people in a wide range of plant and agriculture-related disciplines.

These disciplines include microbiology, genetics, phenomics, entomology, molecular biology, plant physiology, soil, water, climate and biosecurity specialists, precision agriculture and remote sensing, weed management and others.

Between them, they cover the full spectrum of fundamental to applied research in a wide range of crops and specialisations. If you can’t find the expert you are looking for, call the general enquiries number on our Contact page and we’ll put you in touch with the right group or person.

Capability directory

Agronomy & Farming Systems
  • Crop Physiology: Glenn McDonald, The University of Adelaide
  • New Variety Agronomy: Rob Wheeler, SARDI
  • Agronomy: Gurjeet Gill, The University of Adelaide
  • Agroforestry & Extension: Ian Nuberg, The University of Adelaide
  • Farming Systems: Nigel Wilhelm, SARDI
  • Legumes and Nitrogen: Matt Denton, The University of Adelaide
  • Integrated Agricultural Systems Group: Rick Llewellyn, CSIRO
  • Mixed Farming & Cropping Systems: Therese McBeath, CSIRO
Biometry
Carbohydrates
Cereals
  • Durum Wheat Breeding: Jason Able, The University of Adelaide
  • National Oat Breeding Program: Pamela Zwer, Crop Improvement, SARDI
  • Barley Quality Pre-breeding: Amanda Box, The University of Adelaide
  • Hybrid Breeding: Ryan Whitford, ACPFG
  • Bioinformatics: Ute Baumann, ACPFG
  • Cell Walls: Rachel Burton, The University of Adelaide
  • Drought Tolerance: Delphine Fleury, The Wheat Hub
  • Genetics: Diane Mather, The University of Adelaide
  • Frost Tolerance: Tim March, The University of Adelaide
  • National Variety Trials: Rob Wheeler, SARDI
  • Salinity Tolerance: Stuart Roy, ACPFG
  • Structural Biology: Maria Hrmova, The University of Adelaide
  • Pathology: Hugh Wallwork, Plant Health & Biosecurity, SARDI
  • Crop Physiology: Victor Sadras, Climate Adaptation, SARDI
  • Wheat Grain Biochemistry, Genetics and Quality: Daryl Mares, The University of Adelaide
Climate
  • Climate Adaptation: Peter Hayman, SARDI
Environment
Extension
  • Winemaking problem-solving, wine education, winemaking and viticulture extension: Con Simos, The Australian Wine Research Institute
Food & Nutrition
  • Healthy Food: John Carragher, The University of Adelaide
  • Lipids, Functional Foods: Bob Gibson, The University of Adelaide
  • Nutrigenomics: Tina Bianco-Motto, The University of Adelaide
  • Obesity & Metabolic Health: Bev Muhlhausler, The University of Adelaide
  • Functional Foods, Early Life Nutrition and Long-term Health: Jo Zhou, The University of Adelaide
Genomics
  • Drought tolerance in cereals: Delphine Fleury, ARC Wheat Hub
  • Reproductive biology and genome editing: Ryan Whitford, University of Adelaide
  • Alien introgression, cereal cytogenetics and chromosome engineering: Ian Dundas, University of Adelaide
  • Metagenomics: Anthony Borneman, The Australian Wine Research Institute
  • Grape Genomics: Mark Thomas, CSIRO
  • Harley Smith, CSIRO
Horticulture
Hydrology
  • Regional Scale Groundwater Analysis: Russell Crosbie, CSIRO
  • Environmental Tracers, Noble Gas Laboratory, Geochronology: Axel Suckow, CSIRO
Insects
  • Bees: Katja Hogendoorn, The University of Adelaide
  • Insect Behaviour and Ecology: Mike Keller, The University of Adelaide
  • Integrated Pest Management: Greg Baker, Entomology, SARDI
  • Collective Behaviour: Jerome Buhl, The University of Adelaide
Metabolomics
Molecular Genetics
Natural Resource Management
Nematology

.

Pastures
  • Crop Improvement: Alan Humphries, SARDI
Plant Cell Physiology
Plant Pathology
  • Cereal Diseases: Hugh Wallwork, SARDI
  • Plant Pathogen Interactions: Amanda Able, The University of Adelaide
  • Pulse and Oil Seed Diseases: Jenny Davidson, Plant Health & Biosecurity, SARDI
  • Soil Diagnostics: Alan McKay, SARDI
  • Viruses: Nuredin Habili, AWRI
  • Fungal diseases: Eileen Scott, The University of Adelaide
Plant Phenomics
Plant Protection
  • Integrated Pest Management: Greg Baker, SARDI
  • Entomology: Jerome Buhl, The University of Adelaide
  • Quarantine: Pauline Glocke, Plant Health & Biosecurity, SARDI
  • Soil-borne diseases: Alan McKay, Soil Biology & Diagnostics, SARDI
Plant Reproductive Biology
Precision Agriculture
Pulses
  • Improvement: Tim Sutton, Crop Improvement, SARDI
  • Pathology: Jenny Davidson, Plant Health & Biosecurity, SARDI
  • Cowpea yield improvement, Anna Koltunow, CSIRO
Soil Science
Water
Weed Science
Wine Chemistry
  • Flavour and aroma chemistry: Leigh Francis, The Australian Wine Research Institute
  • Flavour & Aroma, Paul Boss, CSIRO
  • Aroma, flavour and phenolic compounds, tannins: David Jeffery, The University of Adelaide
  • Analytical chemistry, natural products chemistry, oenology: Markus Herderich, The Australian Wine Research Institute
  • Polyphenols, proteins, polysaccharides, colloids: Paul Smith, The Australian Wine Research Institute
  • Metals, oxidation, reduction, analytical chemistry: Eric Wilkes, The Australian Wine Research Institute
  • Authenticity: Martin Day, The Australian Wine Research Institute
  • Grape berry metabolism of acids: Chris Ford, The University of Adelaide
  • Oak-derived flavours, ‘green’ characters, smoke taint chemistry: Kerry Wilkinson, The University of Adelaide
Wine Microbiology
  • Yeast development: Vladimir Jiranek, School of Agriculture, Food and Wine, The University of Adelaide
  • Microbial genetics, next-genome sequencing: Anthony Borneman, The Australian Wine Research Institute
  • Yeast nutrition: Simon Schmidt, The Australian Wine Research Institute
  • Wine production microbiology: Amy Rinaldo, The Australian Wine Research Institute
  • Winery wastewater: Paul Grbin, School of Agriculture, Food & Wine
Wine Sensory
  • Quantitative descriptive analysis, wine quality assessments, multivariate data analysis, consumer testing: Leigh Francis, The Australian Wine Research Institute
  • Sue Bastian, The University of Adelaide
  • Kerry Wilkinson, The University of Adelaide
Wine Supply Chain
  • Winery engineering: Richard Muhlack, The University of Adelaide
  • Winemaking technologies, winery refrigeration, wine transport, lees management, tank design: Simon Nordestgaard, The Australian Wine Research Institute
  • Sensors, packaging solutions: Neil Scrimgeour, The Australian Wine Research Institute
Viticulture
  • Grapevine physiology, adaptation to climate warming: Steve Tyerman, The University of Adelaide
  • Grapevine Physiology: Everard Edwards, CSIRO
  • Wine Grape & Horticulture: Rob Walker, CSIRO
  • Precision Agriculture: Rob Bramley, CSIRO
  • Berry Development: Chris Davies, CSIRO
  • Disease Resistance: Ian Dry, CSIRO
  • Grapevine Function: Mandy Walker, CSIRO
  • Flavour & Aroma: Paul Boss, CSIRO
  • Genomics: Mark Thomas, CSIRO
  • Breeding & Meristem Function: Harley Smith, CSIRO
  • Water and vine physiology: Mike McCarthy, Water Resources, Viticulture and Irrigated Crops, SARDI
  • Climate research: Peter Hayman, Climate Adaptation, SARDI
  • Fungal and bacterial diseases in grapevines: Eileen Scott, The University of Adelaide
  • Eutypa dieback: Mark Sosnowski, SARDI
  • Fruit quality, vine balance: Cassandra Collins, School of Agriculture, Food & Wine, The University of Adelaide
  • Vine performance, viticulture extension: Paul Petrie, SARDI and The Australian Wine Research Institute
  • Greenhouse gas emissions from viticulture, viticulture extension: Mardi Longbottom, The Australian Wine Research Institute
  • Agrochemicals, viticulture extension: Marcel Essling, The Australian Wine Research Institute
  • Quality markers: Keren Bindon, The Australian Wine Research Institute
  • Grapevine ecophysiology, advanced sensing technologies: Vinay Pagay, The University of Adelaide

Pin It on Pinterest

Share This