ARC RESEARCH HUB FOR SMART FERTILISERS - Key Persons
Bill Malcolm is an agricultural and resource economist specializing in agribusiness and farm economic analysis involving benefits, costs and risks of farm and value chain innovations. Bill leads Theme 5, developing a model and indices identifying the real-world cost of nitrogen use, by working closely with industry and peak bodies. His outstanding track record in collaborating with primary producers and agriculture businesses addressing the challenges and opportunities presented by changing economies, markets, climate and seasonal disruptions. Bill has undertaken research with funding from major Australian government grants and research development corporation projects on topics including sustainable livestock businesses in an increasingly variable climate and returns on R&D in the grain industry.
Carl has a Bachelor of Science (Biochemistry) and a Master of Science (BioScience) from The University of Melbourne. He is interested in the molecular basis underpinning the relationship between beneficial bacteria and plants, with the ultimate goal to create sustainable biofertilisers which remain stable in the field. His masters project focused on the isolation of novel plant associated bacteria with the ability to mineralise organic phosphorus compounds and their positive effects on the growth of wheat. He combined culture dependent and independent methods to characterise isolated bacteria, as well as non-invasive and invasive methods to measure plant growth promotion.
Job Titles:
- Incitec Pivot Fertilisers, Vice President - Agronomy & Innovation
- Partner Investigators
Job Titles:
- Professor
- Redmond Barry Distinguished Professor
Deli Chen is a Redmond Barry Distinguished Professor and the discipline leader in the Soil and the Environment Research Group, School of Agriculture and Food, in the Faculty of Veterinary and Agricultural Science at The University of Melbourne. As Hub Director he provides strategic and practical leadership as well as oversight of Hub operations and engagement with stakeholders. Deli has extensive experience working with industry and government in major research collaborations in Australia and internationally. He is recognized as a global expert in water and nitrogen dynamics in plant-soil systems, GIS based agroecosystem modelling and decision support systems for optimal fertilizer management. Deli's research involves measurement, modelling and mitigation of greenhouse gas emissions from land sources, including the role of enhanced efficiency N fertilizers, and uses agricultural ‘big data' approaches to develop ‘sustainability indices' that aim to facilitate adoption of suitable N management strategies in agriculture. His work has been recognized through national and international awards such as the Kingenta Agricultural Science Award, the JA Prescott Medal for excellence and achievement in the field of soil science by the Australian Society of Soil Science and a Fellow of the American Society of Agronomy, the Soil Science Society of America, and Soil Science Australia.
As Hub Manager, Boris coordinates all aspects of strategic planning, governance, contractual requirements, industry engagement, training programs and day to day management. Boris has extensive experience in research management and research. In research management, he has developed strategies to identify, diversify, develop and increase institutional funding for research in several Australian universities and medical research institutes. This research management experience is built on a foundation of previous experience as a research group leader in medical research institutes across Australia and the US. This has included directing postdoctoral scientists and research assistants, training PhD and Honours students, publishing research in leading international journals and securing funding of several million dollars as a lead chief investigator from major national and international funding bodies.
The Hub Manager coordinates all aspects of Hub administration and operations including governance processes, finances, relationship management, reporting, communications and stakeholder engagement.
Job Titles:
- Elders, Research and Extension Manager
Job Titles:
- Chief Investigators
- Theme Leader, Theme 3 - Microbiome Interactions
Dr Hu is a soil molecular microbial ecologist with research interests broadly defined within the areas of soil biology and health, plant-microbe interactions, and environmental microbiology. He leads Theme 3 which will develop new knowledge of plant signaling molecules and how these advise development of more efficient nitrogen fertilisers. Dr Hu has collaborated with Australian and New Zealand fertiliser industries, and the grains and livestock industries to establish data analysis methods to support business decisions. Dr Hu's research has been able to take advantage of rapidly improving high-throughput sequencing approaches to answer important ecological questions regarding soil/plant microbiome composition and diversity, soil biogeochemical nitrogen cycling processes and transmission of antibiotic resistance genes in plant-soil systems. Dr Hu has published >120 peer-reviewed papers (>90 papers in the last five years) in multidisciplinary areas, which have been cited 5000 times and an editor of Plant Growth Regulation and Journal of Soils and Sediments.
Job Titles:
- Incitec Pivot Fertilisers, Director of Research and Development
Frank Caruso is an internationally recognised expert in nano- and biomaterials with extensive experience in managing multidisciplinary research teams, commercialisation and industry collaborations. Frank leads Theme 1, developing engineered coatings for the controlled release of fertilisers. He has led and collaborated on numerous Australian and international funded research programs. His achievements have been recognised through numerous awards and appointments including Fellowship of the Royal Society and Fellowship of the Australian Academy of Science. He is a highly cited researcher and is an editor and on the editorial boards of a number of key academic journals in materials science and nanotechnology.
Job Titles:
- Associate Professor
- Associate Professor of Soil Science, Nutrition and Greenhouse
- Hub Director / Associate Professor Helen Suter
Helen Suter is an Associate Professor of Soil Science, Nutrition and Greenhouse Gases. She is an expert in nitrogen cycling and efficiency in agricultural systems, particularly dairy and horticulture, with extensive experience working on university-industry partnerships. In her role as Deputy Director she leads engagement activities and the development of new partnership opportunities, in addition to supporting the Hub Director in business management, strategy development and corporate governance and contributing to research in Theme 4. Helen's research focuses on nitrogen efficiency and nitrogenous gas emissions from fertilisers, manures and soils across a range of agricultural industries and climates. She has led research in Government funded National programs on greenhouse gas emissions and profitable nitrogen strategies, working closely with the fertiliser and dairy industries as well as being an investigator on numerous other research projects).
Job Titles:
- Student at the University of Melbourne
Majid Soltani is a PhD student at the University of Melbourne. His research puts the spotlight on the development of biodegradable fertilizer coating. Before commencing his doctoral studies, Majid worked as a researcher, focusing on projects related to developing porous materials such as MOFs. He earned his BSc in chemical engineering from Isfahan University of Technology and later pursued an MSc in Nano-Chemical Engineering at Shiraz University. For his masters thesis, he specialized in producing biodegradable and antibacterial films for packaging applications using Nanocrystalline cellulose.
Parvinder Sidhu is third-year PhD student at the University of Melbourne and her research is an intermix of organic, analytical and soil chemistry. Prior to her PhD, she worked as a research assistant on a project involving a multi-step synthesis of bi-cyclic peptides. Her masters work focused on gaining a better understanding of the mechanism of radical polymer degradation using mass spectrometry and the distonic radical ion-approach. She wants to inspire young minds through teaching and has also been awarded the best demonstrator award for first-year chemistry. Outside of her work life, she enjoys cooking, travelling, and going on her morning runs.
Shu Kee Lam has expertise in quantification of agronomic and environmental benefits of agricultural management practices. He will lead Theme 4, which will measure and demonstrate the impact of the new fertilisers (developed in Themes 1 and 2) on the soil, environment and community health. His research focuses on soil carbon and nitrogen dynamics in agroecosystems, including soil-plant interactions under climate change (elevated atmospheric CO 2 concentration) and mitigation of greenhouse gas emissions using urease and nitrification inhibitors. He also has expertise in global data synthesis including meta-analysis. He has been a chief investigator of research projects funded by Australian Research Council (ITRH, Linkage), Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research, New Zealand Ministry for Primary Industries, and Incitec Pivot Fertilisers. He is an Editorial Board member of Agriculture, Ecosystems and Environment and Plant and Soil, and a recipient of the ICM AgriFood Award (Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering), IPNI Scholar Award, and the Publication Medal of Soil Science Australia.