QAAFI: Where to next?

As QAAFI enters its seventh year of operation, what are the key challenges facing the organisation to meet the research priorities of our stakeholders? Where will the growth be in crops, horticulture and food sciences? How can QAAFI’s global research collaborations deliver benefits to Queensland, and tropical and subtropical production systems in northern Australia? What are the challenges and opportunities to meet the key challenges of reduced R&D funding, climate stressors, technology and consumer drivers over the coming years? Join Professor Robert Henry, Director of QAAFI, for the first of QAAFI’s 2017 research seminar series.

This seminar will be live streamed here for those who cannot attend. We encourage people to send questions via Twitter using #QAAFILIVE, or emailing the Seminar Co-ordinator, Hannah Hardy.

Professor Robert Henry

Professor Robert Henry, is a graduate of the University of Queensland, B Sc (Hons), Macquarie University, M Sc (Hons) and La Trobe University (Ph D). In 2000 Professor Henry was awarded a higher doctorate (D Sc) by UQ for his work on analysis of variation in plants.

Before being appointed QAAFI Director in May 2010, he was Director of the Centre for Plant Conservation Genetics at Southern Cross University, a centre which he established in 1996. Other previous positions held by Professor Henry include Research Director of the Grain Foods Cooperative Research Centre (CRC) (until 2010) and Research Program Leader in the Queensland Agricultural Biotechnology Centre (until 1996).

Some of his earlier roles include: working with CSIRO on fruit and vegetable biochemistry; a Cereal Chemist with the Queensland Department of Primary Industries, including research into the quality of malt and barley for brewing; a Senior Principal Scientist with the Queensland Wheat Research Institute, where he played a major role in grain quality research, and a Post Doctoral fellow working on cell biology and genetics at the National Institute of Agrobiological Resources in Japan.

Professor Henry’s speciality research area is the study of agricultural crops using molecular tools. He is particularly interested in Australian flora and plants of economic and social importance and has led the way in research into genome sequencing to capture novel genetic resources for the diversification of food crops to deliver improved food products.