Improving Plant Tolerance to Abiotic Stress: Electrophysiological, Molecular, and Evolutionary Approaches

Date

Tuesday 14 November 2017

Time

12:30 AEDT – Canberra Armidale Werribee; 12:00 ACDT – Adelaide; 11:30 AEST – Brisbane; ;  09:30 AWST – Perth

Venues

CSIRO: Black Mountain – Discovery Theatre; Adelaide Waite – B101-FG-SmallWICWest; Brisbane QBP – Level 3 South telepresence room (3.323); Armidale – B55-FG-R00-Small; Perth Floreat – B1b Boardroom; Werribee (Melbourne) – Peacock Room

Speaker

Associate Professor Zhong-Hua Chen, Western Sydney University

Synopsis

Abiotic stresses such as drought and soil salinity are among the biggest threats to agricultural productivity. We use a range of electrophysiological methods in combination with genomics, transcriptomics, and molecular biology to investigate the underlying mechanisms of drought and salinity tolerance in Arabidopsis and barley. We also employ some evolutionary approaches to evaluate the origin, function and regulation of stomata of a range of plant species in order to identify unique stomatal traits and genes for improving plant drought tolerance. These research outcomes may contribute to our long-term goal for future sustainable food production in Australia and the world.

Bio

Associate Professor Zhong-Hua Chen has 15 years of expertise in plant physiology, plant biotechnology and electrophysiology. He is Associate Dean International at School of Science and Health, Western Sydney University. He teaches into a few Units of the Natural Science and Science programs. He is currently co-supervising nine PhD students. His research work shows high quality and impact in agriculture and plant science. He has over 70 publications with an h-index of 26 and total citations over 2,800 since 2005. He has obtained a few large research grants in the past five years. He has received a range of research awards including the 2014 ARC Discovery Early Career Researcher Award (DECRA), the 2013 Australian Government Minister’s Award, and the 2013 Science and Innovation Awards to Young People in Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry. He is the Editor in Chief for Plant Growth Regulation and a reviewer for over 50 journals.