We again have a number of happy news items from across RSB, another testament to the hard work everyone has been putting in:
Craig Moritz became an elected member of the US Academy of Sciences, a huge achievement based on his long career on biodiversity and conservation. The Academy only elects a maximum of 30 members from outside the US every year. This year, Australia was the country with the highest number of elected members, including three from the ANU. ANU and - within ANU - RSB has had the highest share of elected members over the years (if I’ve counted correctly..), and Craig is joining Rutherford Robertson, David Catcheside and Ralph Slatyer (all of whom had part of this building named after them), as well as Graham Farquhar as a member of the US National Academy.
In addition, we celebrated Bob Furbank’s election to the Australian Academy of Science, honouring his pioneering work on plant phenotyping, including his leadership in setting up APPN (APPF in those days, starting CSIRO), and his achievements in bringing together physiology with phenotyping to design more efficient crops. Kai Chan received the Fenner medal from the AAS, the third Fenner medal in a row for RSB and a fantastic achievement to add to his long list of awards. Please see the photos of the joint event to celebrate the three ‘academy awards’ in the newsletter below.
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From Left: Craig Moritz (E&E), Bob Furbank (PS) and Kai Chan (PS) at the 'academy awards' event in the RN Robertson Tea Room
To add to our grant funding successes this year, three Hermon Slade projects were recently funded across RSB (out of only 11 funded across Australia), awarded to Ash Jones, Joshua Coates and Rod Peakall, congratulations everyone involved!
And luckily for many of us, we survived another semester of teaching and looking forward to spending our June marking exams. It’s been a huge effort to cover teaching gaps, navigate AI challenges with assessments and teach a new incarnation of first year courses this semester, and I wanted to extend a big thankyou to everyone who went beyond their usual call of duty. Thanks also to several EMCRs who have been contributing to our teaching, sometimes at short notice but with great enthusiasm, I am sure our undergraduates appreciate it.
We will have another joint seminar afternoon planned with RSC on 24th June, building on two previous events last year that have led to some new collaborations. Please email me if you would like to give a short talk about your work for the events, we still have open slots. This event will take the place of the Director’s seminar in June and will be followed shortly afterwards by the Slatyer Medal Award to TJ Higgins on 1st July.
Uli Mathesius, Director, RSB
Grants Awarded
ESA Holsworth Wildlife Research Endowment
Nicola Haggerty Mayers (Whitney Group, PS) valued at $8,300
Peisong Tian (Head Group, E&E) valued at $7,650
Olga Azevedo (Sequeira Group, E&E) valued at $8,470
Muhammad Farooq (Head Group, E&E) valued at $8,055
Billy Bray (Langmore Group, E&E) valued at $8,500
Hermon Slade Foundation
Josh Coates (Head Group, E&E) valued at $58,690
Ashley Jones (Schwessinger Group, PS) valued at $83,155
Rodney Peakall (E&E) valued at $90,000
PhDs Submitted
April - May 2026
Suyan Yee
(Chan Group)
Decrypting the cell-specific cellular signalling pathways and acclimation responses driving stress-resilient C4 photosynthesis
Chun-Chieh Liao
(Magrath Group, E&E)
Acoustic communication and collective decision-making in social animal groups
Reshma Roy
(Millar Group, PS)
Developing early flowering Brassica carinata for cover cropping and sustainable aviation fuel production
PhDs Awarded
April - May 2026
Abigail Piscioneri Graetz
(Schwessinger Group, PS)
Microbiome dynamics during rust fungal infections
Hong Ting (Natalie) Tsang
(Pogson Group, PS)
Harnessing Synthetic Biology for Retrograde Signalling in Plants
Matt Mortimer
(Pogson Group, PS)
Beyond sequence similarity: Computational classification of plant enzymes through electrostatic similarity
Roy Ebel
(Keogh Group, E&E)
The Function and Evolution of Osteoderms in Squamate Reptiles
Elaine Tao
(Corry Group, BSB)
Exploring mechanisms of inhibition and inactivation in voltage-gated sodium channels using molecular simulations
Congratulations
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Yilin Bai (Head Group, E&E) was awarded a Dr Tony Jordan OAM Award for 2026
Dr Tony Jordan OAM Award
Yilin Bai (Head Group, E&E) has been awarded Wine Australia's Dr Tony Jordan OAM Award 2026 alongside a PhD top-up scholarship. The award recognises the most outstanding applicant among Wine Australia's annual PhD scholarship recipients. Yilin's PhD research, conducted jointly with the Australian Wine Research Institute through the ARC Training Centre in Plant Biosecurity, uses genomic and machine learning tools to identify and track scale insect and mealybug pests in Australian vineyards.
RSB 3-Minute Thesis (3MT)
Congratulations to all five speakers at the RSB 3 Minute Thesis competition. A special congratulations to Cecilia Nie (Maier Group, BSB) as the runner up and Suzanne Yahfoufi (Mathesius Group, PS) as the winner of the RSB competition and the people’s choice!
Ceclilia Nie
Spicing up cholesterol: a novel cure for parasitic diseases
Callum O'Flaherty
Klebsiella pneumoniae vs Copper and Oxygen
Fatema Akhter
The Hidden Costs of Love Under Pressure
George Lucas
Spatial Mapping Global Human Wildlife Conflict Risk
Suzanne Yahfoufi
The hidden partnership that could feed the world
Ritman Scholarships
Congratulations to PhD students Shimi Jose (Williams Group, PS), Jessica Kriticos (Stone Group, E&E) and Samantha Whitling (Schwessinger Group, PS) for being awarded Ritman Scholarships this year. The scholars, all members of the ARC Training Centre in Plant Biosecurity, presented at the Plant Biosecurity Research Initiative Symposium on 13 May and will be co-convening the Plant Health Student Network for the duration of the scholarship (two years).
In the Media
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Cockburn Group (E&E) predict the extinction of one of Canberra's most beloved birds. Photo Credit: Olivia Congdon/ANU
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Kai Chan (PS) awarded the Frank Fenner Medal from the Australian Academy of Science
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Ana Sequeira (E&E) named Australia's National Champion in the Frontiers Plant Prize. Photo Nic Vevers/ANU
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Social Connections are key to the spread of new behaviours within wild cockatoo communities. Photo: Julia Penndorf
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Bob Furbank (PS) elected as an Australian Academy of Science Fellow. Photo: Nic Vevers/ANU
Lucy Aplin (E&E) and Julia Penndorf (Aplin Group, E&E) were interviewed by ANU Reporter regarding recent findings that wild sulphur-crested cockatoos learn what foods are safe to eat by watching each other — a discovery that helps explain how the species thrives in rapidly changing urban environments. Read the full article: Copycat cockatoos learn to adapt from each other.
Bob Furbank (PS), Yun Liu (RSC) and Jochen Brocks (RSES) have been elected as Fellows of the Australian Academy of Science in recognition for their groundbreaking research contributions. Read the full article: Three top ANU scientists elected to the Australian Academy of Science.
News
Science Meets Parliament 25-26th March 2026
Written by Joanna Melonek (PS)
On the early morning of 25 March, navigating the rather complex traffic situation on the Commonwealth Avenue Bridge, I made my way to the Australian Parliament House to attend the ‘Science Meets Parliament (SMP) 2026’ event. As stated on the Science & Technology Australia website ‘Science Meets Parliament features a comprehensive training program designed to strengthen relationships between federal parliamentarians and professionals in science and technology. It plays a vital role in integrating STEM expertise into national service’. This is therefore not exactly the type of meeting I am used to attending as a researcher, but I gladly accepted the challenge!
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Jonanna Melonek (PS) with Dr Sajitha Biju (UniMelb) in the Marble Foyer, Parliament House. Photo credit: SMP26 staff member.
This year’s SMP brought together more than 400 Australian STEM professionals in academia, industry, and government. The event also included parliamentarians, invited guests, speakers, sponsors and additional participants across a two-day program.
Over several sessions, we’ve heard from Ministers, Members of Parliament and researchers. One of the agenda items was the National Press Club address, where we heard from the Minister for Science, Senator Tim Ayres, who referred to the Ambitious Australia report and emphasised that Australian science is at the front of the Government’s agenda (his remarks may, in light of the recently announced budget, be viewed differently by some in the Australian science community; author’s note).
The evening culminated in a Gala Dinner, for which everyone got into their best clothes and brought their best spirits! (Picture 1). The dinner offered an extraordinary opportunity to network and make new connections but also catch up with old friends.
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Meeting with Senator Tammy Tyrrell. From left: Dr Kyana Pike, Dr Margo Adler, Sen. Tammy Tyrrell and Joanna Melonek (PS). Photo Credit: Banjamin Arja.
The highlight of Day 2 of SMP 2026 was a meeting with Senator Tammy Tyrrell, Senator for Tasmania, in her parliamentary office (Picture 2) and a final discussion with Prof. The Hon Bill Shorten, who put forward the idea that large Australian companies could contribute more directly to universities and higher education, noting that they benefit from the pool of graduates produced by these institutions.
Overall, my participation in SMP 2026 was a great experience and I highly recommend it. It felt good to be in the ‘Heart of Democracy’ and to be reminded, by the discreet sound of a bell, that important decisions were being voted on in the Parliament House as we were having the meeting there. My take-home message from the meeting is to be comfortable being uncomfortable and don’t be afraid to try new things from time to time.
I would like to thank to the Australian Society of Plant Scientists for the opportunity to attend the meeting and Science & Technology Australia for organising the event.
The April HDR conference of 2026 hit the ground running with a morning of confirmation of candidature talks that have us all anticipating the exciting research to come from the newest BSB PhD students. The stimulating energy was carried throughout the day with intriguing results, theories and thought-provoking ideas during the presentations from BSB, E&E and PS students. After a day of research and engaging presentations, wise wisdom was imparted by Tanya Skinner (Whitney Group, PS), last year's winner of the best thesis prize - may we all look back at the end of our PhD's and realise how much we’ve learnt, grown and overcome!
The quality of the talks was exceptional. However, the HDR conference would not be complete without the due recognition of the presentations that stood out amongst the crowd - Alex Cleaver (Brock Group, BSB), Kushini Kalupahana (Langmore Group, E&E) and Arslan Mahmood (Millar Group, PS) all received the Hirota Naora prize for the best talk from each division. Special congratulations to our winners and to all those that presented - it is a pleasure to hear about the captivating work emerging from the next-generation researchers at RSB.
As always, such a success story would not be have been possible without the organisational skills of our wonderful HDR committee members - Cecilia Nie (Maier Group, BSB), Grace Jones (Tham Group, BSB), Shefali Dorepalli (Aplin Group, E&E), Fran Hacker (Farine Group, E&E), Arslan Mahmood (Millar Group, PS) and Sabah-Ud-Din Mazhar (Danila Group, PS) - as well as the session chairs and other helpers for keeping the conference on schedule and ensuring smooth sailing behind the scenes. And last but not least, a special thank you to HDR Convenors and the amazing Celeste Linde (E&E) for overseeing her last HDR conference as our great and noble leader.
May the coming year bring bewitching results, publication success and funding for all – bring on the November conference!
PBTC Melbourne 2026 Centre Forum
The ARC Training Centre in Plant Biosecurity held their annual Forum in Melbourne on Monday, 11 May 2026. There were 70 people participating in the interactive day, including our amazing PhD students and postdocs, representatives from our partner organisations, and university researchers. For more information read the full article Melbourne 2026 Centre Forum on the PBTC website.
RSB Interest Groups are live
Due to some lovely volunteers within the RSB Community, we now have several new interest groups for RSB members to sign up to:
Really Sick Books Club - hosted by Ciara Wallis and Callum O'Flaherty.
Each month we’ll suggest options for short books (<450 pages) to read, and the most popular book will be read over the course of the month. We'll then meet up at Badger over food and drinks to discuss its strengths, weaknesses, and everything in between. We’ll aim to cover a range of genres, themes, and authors across the year to try and keep the book club fun for the broad interests of the RSB community 🙂. The June book will be Piranesi by Susanna Clark, so please reach out to either Ciara or Callum if you would like to join in.
Research School of Board Games - hosted by Jeremy Arndt
Weekly lunchtime group where you can bring your boardgames or play someone else's to meet and befriend some fellow biologists. Events will be advertised via the RSB socials mailing list, but you can also contact Jeremy directly.
Some action shots from the recent Bananagrams tournament below:
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Bananagrams Tournament Category Winners from left: Jeremy Arndt (Corry Group, BSB), Ellie Jordan (APPN), Aude Fahrer (BSB), Alex Williams (Brock Group, BSB) with her championship banana squishmallow, Scarlett Cox (Saliba Group, BSB)
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Bananagrams rivalry sparks between our BSB Group Leaders
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Fierce Bananagramming at the Linnaeus Drop-in Centre
RSB Run Club - hosted by Nathan Yau, Eva El Hassan, Scarlett Cox
We are RSB’s resident run club, running every Monday at 5 PM. Runners of all levels are welcome, and we usually run two groups, a 5 km and a 3 km group. We usually meet up around the biology Drop-In centre in the Linnaeus building (134). Each run club gathering is advertised via the RSB Socials mailing list, but you can also contact Nathan, Eva or Scarlett for more information.
Movie Zombies: The Club for Brainrot - hosted by Edward Lawrence and Esha Shekar
If you don’t know already, we’re the Movie Zombies: The Club for Brainrot. How does “Brainrot” come into this? Well, we know the people at RSB are all hardworkers, so we wanted to give everyone a time during the week to switch off and chill. This means our movies selections can include good or bad movies, chill or chaotic movies. The only guideline we give is that it must be able to be enjoyed by everyone (especially those whose brains have switched off by the end of the day). Events will be advertised via the RSB socials mailing list or you can contact Edward or Esha to be added to the Teams group.
If you would like to form a new RSB Interest Group, please reach out to Emily Furlong (emily.furlong@anu.edu.au) and Vienna Harkness (ea.rsb@anu.edu.au) to get started.
From the PSBA
First PSBA Client Success: Wheat Transient Expression via Biolistic Bombardment
PSBA is pleased to announce the successful delivery of our first fee‑for‑service project for an external client. Using biolistic bombardment, the project, delivered by our PSBA staff Hanjun Sun (PSBA), successfully transformed a Ruby marker into young wheat shoots. Ruby expression was clearly observed as distinctive dark red stripes (see image below). While this was a small, short‑term project, its success has opened the door to discussions around longer‑term projects and collaboration.
At PSBA, we offer flexible scheduling and workload arrangements tailored to your research needs, whether for short‑term experiments or extended projects. If you have an experiment in mind, we encourage you to reach out to any member of our team. We offer a broad range of plant synthetic biology services at highly accessible rates.
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PSBA NLRD Update
PSBA is pleased to share that we now have a broad-ranging NLRD in place, covering a wide array of common crops, vegetables and model organisms. In total, this includes a combination of more than 90 plants/crops at the genus and species level.
We extend our sincere thanks to the rDNA committee for their instrumental support in helping to make this achievement possible in such a timely manner.
Looking ahead, we encourage RSB colleagues to get in touch with PSBA via psba@anu.edu.au and share the plant species they are currently working on or may plan to work on in the future. Your input will be invaluable as we begin preparations for our next NLRD. Find out more at Plant Synbio Australia.
From the APPN
You’re Invited: APPN Facility Tour 🌱
APPN-ANU is pleased to invite you to our next facility tour on Wednesday 10 June, 10-11am. Join us as we open the doors to our plant growth facilities and phenotyping infrastructure.
Whether you are a new user or a familiar face, this tour is a great chance to see our facilities in action, discover what’s possible and chat with the team about access, capabilities, and ideas for your next project.
Collecting or returning APPN equipment? We’ve moved!
You’ll now find the equipment collection and drop-off point in our new office space, still on the 1st floor, north wing of Linnaeus, but further along the corridor- right next to the Future Crops Centre (N1.025).
Please continue to arrange alternative access via appn@anu.edu.au if you do not have building access to Linnaeus.
Equipment Induction Sessions Are Back! 🔧
APPN-ANU is happy to announce the return of equipment induction sessions, running every Wednesday from 10-11am, meeting in the Linnaeus building drop-in center. If you’re a first-time user, these sessions are essential for gaining access to equipment from the APPN resource list. For existing users, it’s the perfect opportunity to explore new phenotyping tools, refresh your knowledge or ask questions about other APPN services.
To attend one of these weekly sessions, please fill out the linked form.
Costa, S.R., Mathesius, U., 2026. Transferred resistance – interspecific transfer of plant defence against soilborne pathogens. New Phytologist 250, 1355–1357. https://doi.org/10.1111/nph.70976
Davies, C.S., Capilla‐Lasheras, P., Catelan‐Carphio, E., Castro, A.C., Diez‐Méndez, D., Drobniak, S.M., Drzewińska‐Chańko, J., Kohl, K.D., Martínez‐Renau, E., Ramellini, S., Richardson, D.S., Ruuskanen, S., Sutton, A.O., Szulkin, M., Troisi, C.A., White, J., Worsley, S.F., Bodawatta, K.H., Videvall, E., 2026. Bridging the gap: improving methodologies for future avian microbiome research. Journal of Avian Biology 2026, e03594. https://doi.org/10.1002/jav.03594
Ellis-Soto, D., Noble, D.W.A., Arnold, P.A., Pottier, P., Robey, A.J., Prokopenko, C., Cohen, J., 2026. Extreme Heat as the New Normal: A Methodological Roadmap Incorporating Behavior, Physiology, and Species Distributions. Integrative And Comparative Biology icag045. https://doi.org/10.1093/icb/icag045
Han, W., Chan, T., Zhang, C., Lin, X., Cranston, P.S., Nimalrathna, T.S., Lin, B., Tang, H., Seymour, M., 2026. Integrative Assessment of Hong Kong Chironomidae (Diptera) Shows High Species Richness Linked to Spatial and Environmental Factors. Ecology and Evolution 16, e73110. https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.73110
Hannaford, P.I., Coff, L., Hall, R.N., Go, J., Moody, N.J.G., Lanfear, R., 2026. Genomic Analysis of Megalocytivirus Genomes Reveals Widespread Recombination. Genome Biology and Evolution 18, evag095. https://doi.org/10.1093/gbe/evag095
Hu, X., Wong, S.C., Farquhar, G.D., 2026. Coordinated stomatal, mesophyll, and biochemical functions in photosynthetic responses to heat and dryness. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 123, e2605032123. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2605032123
Huang, Q., Maleszka, R., Evans, J.D., 2026. Sex‐biased DNA methylation in small hive beetles ( Aethina tumida ). Insect Molecular Biology imb.70047. https://doi.org/10.1111/imb.70047
Moreno‐Echeverry, D.L., Abadie, C., Gomes, E., Dinant, S., Doidy, J., Pourtau, N., Ball, M.C., Tcherkez, G., 2026. The Contribution of Phloem Metabolism to Leaf Respiration: New Insights Into an Old Problem. Plant Cell & Environment pce.70580. https://doi.org/10.1111/pce.70580
Shinde, A., Praveen, H.N., Shanker, K., Cyriac, V.P., 2026. A Threat‐Scoring Framework Using Crowdsourced Data Indicates High Threat Levels in Fossorial Shieldtail Snakes. Animal Conservation acv.70064. https://doi.org/10.1111/acv.70064
Vinogradov I.M., Fox R.J., Fichtel C., Kappeler P.M., Jennions M.D. 2026. Senescence of cognitive abilities in mosquitofish (Gambusia holbrookii). Animal Behaviour. In Press.
From Left: Craig Moritz (E&E), Bob Furbank (PS) and Kai Chan (PS) at the 'academy awards' event in the RN Robertson Tea Room
