Kelsey Picard Email & Phone Number

Hobart, Tas, Au

Hobart, Tasmania, Australia

Unit Coordinator for Fermentation Principles and Processes, in the College of Business and Economics at the University of Tasmania.

Hobart, Tas

My PhD focuses on the mechanisms underlying the diversification of florigen function and regulation in legumes. Took 1 year employment break and 2 years maternity leave. Currently in the final stages of thesis draft before submission late 2024.

Provide the Weller lab molecular biology support, as well as assisting in glasshouse and field trials for pea, chickpea and lentil. Also provide communications and digital support for the group.

Hobart, Tasmania, Australia

Co-founder and co-president of Science Made Beerable Inc., a not-for-profit, science focused beer blog and events platform which aims to break down the jargon of brewing and science so it is accessible to any beer lover.

Volunteer as a co-host the Tasmanian science show That's What I Call Science, planning contents, organizing guests, interviewing experts, writing grants and helping with social media content. In my Diversity and Inclusion manager role, I ensure the show is representing a balanced demographic of scientists to our audience, and make sure we’re covering all fields of STEMM.

President of the Postgraduate Society for the Biological Sciences at the University of Tasmania. This society supports students through liaising between postgraduate students, the School of Natural Sciences, and the broader university, organizing social events, providing information for financial, and well-being support.

The University Of Melbourne

Assist post-doctoral staff and post-graduate student in their research projects focusing mainly on Cellulose synthesis.

The University Of Melbourne - Bacic Laboratory

Undertake guided research working closely with post-doctoral staff and post-graduate students. Involved in all aspects of the projects I work on including conception, experimental design, execution and analysis. Duties include molecular biology, gene cloning using Gibson or NEB assembly, conventional cloning, gateway and TOPO methods. Bacterial transformation and plasmid DNA extractions. Transient and stable transformation of monocots, dicots and susepension cell cultures. Fluorescent protein visualisation through confocal microscopy, protein extraction from plant tissues and subsequent quantification, Western blotting and enzymatic assays. Plant genetics including genotyping of Arabidopsis and brachypodium through T-DNA insertions or SNPs, including design and utilisation of dCAPS. Responsible for the maintenance of a suspension cell culture of Lolium multiflorum and helped develop a method for the transformation of protoplasts made from this culture.Experience in Carbohydrate analysis and cell wall composition analysis. Other responsibilities in this role include writing Standard Operating Procedures and Risk Assessments to comply with Work Safe standards, organising hazardous and chemical waste disposal, autoclaving PC2 and QC2 waste and maintenance of laboratory stocks, medias.

This role includes preparation of medias, sterilisation of lab equipment for the research lab, planting and maintenance of laboratory stocks of plant material, disposal of waste materials and stocking and ordering of general lab equipment.

Assist the teaching fellow for first year laboratories in preparation, demonstrating, assisting the students, and marking their assessments.

Melbourne, Australia

Tertiary education of science and biotechnology - Assist in teaching VCE year 9-12 students with Get into Genes public outreach program through designing activities and teaching.

Dunedin, New Zealand

Set up and carried out guided research mainly focusing on flowering timing of Medicago through transient expression of putative transcription factors. Aided in the identification of putative distal promoter sequences, gene expression assays, and non-canonical start-codon efficiency assays. Learnt laboratory protocols and techniques such as cloning of genes into expression vectors, PCR, qRT-PCR, restriction enzyme digests and ligations, E. coli and Agrobacterium transformation, plasmid preparations and isolations, analysis with bioinformatics programs such as Geneious, Tair and NCBI, transient expression assays through duel-reporter constructs, transformation of plant leaf tissues through passive infiltration of Agrobacterium, qRT-PCR, and planting of seeds and general maintenance of Medicago, Tobacco, Pea and Arabidopsis plants in growth rooms and more.

Doctor Of Philosophy - Phd, Botany/Plant Biology

Master Of Science (M.Sc.), Botany/Plant Biology, Distinction

Bachelor Of Science (B.Sc.), Plant Biotechnology, A- Average