Adapting Agriculture to Climate Change: Exploring the genetic options
Adapting Agriculture to Climate Change: Exploring the genetic options
Climate change is driving the need for rapid adaptation of agriculture to deliver food security.
The role of plant genetics in adapting to climate change will be reviewed with examples of current research on major field and horticultural crops. The importance of wild crop relatives in crop improvement and adaptation will be illustrated. The potential of agriculture to mitigate climate change will also be explored.
Professor Robert Henry
Queensland Alliance for Agriculture and Food Innovation, The University of Queensland
DNA-based methods for identification of plants and their pathogens, development of molecular markers for plant breeding and the genetic transformation 
of plants, application of DNA technology to the improvement of the quality of crops and agricultural and food products. Analysis of wild-plant populations, especially in Australia, to support their conservation & use in agriculture or forestry, development of significant methods for analysis of plant carbohydrates (sugars, starch & cell-wall polysaccharides)
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.
About Science Seminars
Queensland Alliance for Agriculture and Food Innovation hosts science seminars across the disciplines of animal, horticulture, crop, food and nutritional sciences.
With a range of speakers from Australia and abroad, the series explores how high-impact science will significantly improve the competitiveness and sustainability of the tropical and sub-tropical food, fibre and agribusiness sectors.
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The Queensland Alliance for Agriculture and Food Innovation is a research institute at The University of Queensland supported by the Queensland Government via the Queensland Department of Agriculture and Fisheries.