Dr Andrew Bowerman joined ANU as a Postdoctoral Fellow in 2016 to work on a International Wheat Yield Partnership project, examining energy use efficiency. During this time he has gained experience in project management, field trial design and analysis methods, quatitative genetics, proteomics and statistics, and has continued to develop his skills in molecular biology and biochemistry. He is now a Chief Investigator on a GRDC funded initiative investigating heat tolerance of photosynthesis and respiration, amongst other pheontypes, in wheat along with other researchers at ANU, USyd, UNE, UWA and InterGrain.

Dr Bowerman completed his PhD at ANU (supervised by Professor Barry Pogson) and CSIRO (Dr Jean-Philippe Ral and Dr Frank Gubler) working on wheat grain starch biochemistry, examining how starch phosphate ester content altered starch processing qualities and grain germination and early growth. Prior to this, he worked as a technical officer at CSIRO in the cereal quality area, working on projects as diverse as gluten polymer quality, carotenoid characterisation and wheat genetic engineering techniques.

Major areas of interest to Dr Bowerman are plant energetics, carbohydrate biochecmistry, grain yield and quality, and is also expanding his interests into abiotic stress responses, especially in temperature and drought.

His undergraduate studies were completed at Charles Sturt University in Wagga Wagga, NSW, gaining a BAppSc in Medical and Applied Biotechnology and Honours. His Honours project involved molecular characterisation of cervical cancer development, under the supervision of Professor Todd Walker and Dr Wouter Kalle.

PhD

Yield and energy use efficiency of wheat

Wheat genetics

Starch biochemistry and physicochemical properties

Grain germination, early growth and establishment

Grain size and yield, quality

Abiotic stresses