Worked for the Plant Pathology Group (BioSciences Research Division) on wheat diseases such as crown rot, septoria tritici blotch and yellow (tan) spot.

My work within the Plant Phenomics Group (BioScience Research Division) primarily involved assisting with Nitrogen Use Efficiency (NUE) screening trials of transgenic wheat lines, as well as assisting with drought tolerance field experiments.

I was deployed through the Australian Youth Ambassadors for Development (AYAD) program, in association with AusAid. This role initially revolved around development of a diagnostic information network for local farmers, but evolved into facilitating the revival of the plant pathology laboratory, including equipment repair, staff training and establishing strategic objectives, including the creation of disease and pest fact sheets incorporating IPM for farmer circulation, and contributing to the national disease and pest survey as part of the ACIAR/FAO funded IDPM project. I assisted with experimental design and implementation for new and ongoing projects, focused on improving IPM techniques for crops such as papaya, yam and taro, as well as monitoring on-going pesticide effectiveness on export crops such as Japanese Squash.I also re-established and updated protocols and staff knowledge within the laboratory by collaborating with staff to create technologically appropriate fungal, bacterial and nematode diagnostic and isolation protocols for use within the laboratory. I then trained co-workers on diagnostic techniques, robust experimental design and core scientific concepts through mentoring, creating user documentation and demonstrations.

This role involved demonstrating practical classes for 3rd year ‘Plant Pests & Diseases’, 2nd year ‘Plant Physiology’ and 1st year ‘Agricultural Plant Pathology’ subjects. This role involved communicating scientific techniques such as microscopy, plant disease diagnosis, aseptic protocols, report writing as well as data collection, manipulation and presentation to students, while tailoring to the learning needs and skill levels of individual students.

The 'Thinking Women in Local Government Project' was designed to encourage representation of women in local government elections, which involved the construction of a Microsoft Excel database for collection, sorting and analysis of data. My results and images were then used in presentations given to many local Victorian councils.