Cosmic crops: engineering plants to feed our journey to Mars

Hear how the ARC Centre of Excellence in Plants for Space is trying to make plants that can support human life as we venture forth to Mars. Being so far away from Earth, astronauts can’t rely on resupply from home, so must be able to produce enough food for exploration and will also need medicines and construction materials to aid them. Discover how plants are being engineered to meet the needs of astronauts for deep space exploration. And, if we can get plants to grow on Mars, imagine how successful we will be with plants in other harsh environments, such as Western Australia!

Bio

Born and raised in the United Kingdom, Dr James Lloyd studied genetics at the University of York, expecting to go into biomedical research, but was captivated by the power of plants as a tool to study the processes of life and how they could be engineered to feed the world. He completed a PhD at the University of Leeds in plant molecular genetics and after joining The University of Western Australia, changed focus from how plant genes are naturally turned on and off, to how this process can be engineered to give plants new abilities for agriculture. He is now applying gene technologies he developed to explore how plants can be engineered to help humanity explore our solar system.

Event

Tuesday 28 October, 5:30 pm @Universal Bar, 221 William St, Perth WA 6003

Also speaking at this location at 7:00 pm is Associate Professor Theo Evans