“Ideotyping and Engineering a Zero-Waste Space Strawberry”

Michelle Watt
Professor, Adrienne Clarke Professorial Chair of Botany, The University of Melbourne

Michelle Watt holds the Adrienne Clarke Professorial Chair of Botany at the University of Melbourne and is a Node Leader and co-Program Leader in the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence in Plants for Space (P4S). Within P4S, the Watt Groupis engineering a strawberry that is 100% usable by increasing fruit harvest index, valourising leaves, and creating roots that efficiently use recycled water and nutrients. Michelle is an expert in plant roots (publications). She was President of International Society of Root Research (ISRR) (2018-2025), holds the ISRR Dundee Medal (2017), and is elected R.N. Robertson Award by the Australian Society of Plant Science (2025). She led research at CSIRO in Australia (2001-2015) and the Helmholz Research Centre Juelich and University of Bonn in Germany (2015-2020), and advised agriculture industry through the Australian Grains Research and Development Corporation (2021-2024).