As the cool weather sets in things are ‘hotting up’ at the Functional Grains Centre in preparation for upcoming events. Students and postdoctoral researchers are busy preparing abstracts for the Summer Grains Conference to be held on the Gold Coast in July. This event will not only see us escape Wagga’s cold winter, it will also provide an opportunity to bring the team together to engage in our annual retreat activity.

We were very excited to see Chris Florides submit his thesis earlier this year and are now anxiously waiting to see what the examiners think of his work on wheat allergens. We’ve also had a boost in student numbers with the addition of five new Honours students, Jack Murphy, Borkwei Ed Nignpense, Gideon Kang, Haben Melke and Heidi Bochenek. We will also have Raihan Muhabub joining us as an Honours student in the middle of the year.

Earlier this year, Esther Callcott did a fantastic job representing the FGC at the Evoke Ag event in Melbourne. James Lee has progressed to the Charles Sturt University finals of the Three Minute Thesis (3MT) competition. We wish him well with his presentation.

The rice team had enjoyable visit to the annual industry field day at Jerilderie in March. The team received some useful feedback on the posters they presented.  It was also an excellent opportunity to get into the paddock learn about some rice production issues.

I hope you enjoy reading more about the adventures of the FGC team in this newsletter.

Professor Chris Blanchard

Photo caption: Professor Chris Blanchard and the team in Pakistan