Professor Peter Solomon (email)

 

Lab Leader

 

Peter completed his undergraduate degree and subsequent PhD studies at The University of Queensland investigating the role of molybdenum containing enzymes in the photosynthetic bacterium Rhodobacter capsulatus. He then undertook a postdoctoral position at the Carlsberg Laboratory in Denmark investigating the nutritional basis of the tomato-Cladosporium fulvum interaction. In 2000, he moved to the Australian Centre for Necrotrophic Fungal Pathogens located at Murdoch University in Perth to further investigate fungal-plant interactions using the Parastagonospora nodorum-wheat interaction. In 2008, Peter accepted a Lab Leader position in the Research School of Biology at The Australian National University where his research group is focused on wheat biosecurity. Recently, Peter was awarded an Australian Research Council Future Fellowship to expand his group's interest to cover the devastating wheat pathogen Zymoseptoria tritici.

 

Peter is a Executive Member of the Expert Working Group on Control of Wheat Pathogens and Pests within the Wheat Initiative (more details here).The EWG on Control of Wheat Pathogens and Pests aims to facilitate global coordination of efforts to develop management and gene stewardship deployment strategies. These activities are expected to lead to reductions in yield losses due to diseases and pests, and therefore contribute to the enhancement of global food security.

 

In the recent past, Peter has been a member of the European COST Action FA1208 which is focussed on pathogen-informed strategies for sustainable broad-spectrum crop resistance (more details here).

 

Peter is also heavily involed in undergraduate teaching at ANU including having convening roles in BIOL2142 (General Microbiology) and BIOL3106 (Biosecurity) as well as contributing to BIOL3107 (Advances in Medical and Plant Biochemistry) and supervising BIOL3208 projects.