Stephanie Watts-Fawkes

Congratulations!

PowerPoint slide depicting upcoming conferences in Melbourne and Nanjing.

The International Plant Nutrition Colloquium is in my hometown #Melbourne in 2028! How exciting! 🥳

Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungal inoculation increases the bioavailability of zinc and iron in wheat grain Bread wheat is an important crop that supplies calories and nutrients to the global population. Enhancing the concentrations and bioavailability of essential micronutrients in wheat is crucial for hu...

Yesterday, our new paper came out, with PhD student Diem Nguyen as first author in @plantspeopleplanet.bsky.social

We found that mycorrhizal fungi can enhance Zn and Fe bioavailability in Australian wheat varieties; we used Synchrotron XFM to look in the aleurone layer:
doi.org/10.1002/ppp3...

Prof Alex Johnson on stage in a conference hall, about to give a talk at the international plant nutrition colloquium.

It’s always so good to see Alex Johnson giving a talk - whether it’s in Adelaide or in Porto!

His work on novel micronutrient biofortification strategies in cereals is so exciting, and he’s a great mentor and collaborator ☺️

Is it just an impression or amazing research and discoveries are poping up everywhere about mycorrhizal fungi? A thread of research that I want to catch up on (and maybe you do too):

Entrance to a convention centre with a sign for international plant nutrition conference outside.

I made it to #IPNC2025 in Porto! 🇵🇹

24 hours late, and my suitcase didn’t join me… so no poster to put up for tomorrow 🥲

But still happy to talk about #mycorrhiza and grain zinc biofortification, at every possibly opportunity!

(I’m here way too early 🤦🏻‍♀️)

Off the train and at my boarding gate in 25 minutes for an international flight, at one of Europe’s busiest airports.

The Australian mind cannot comprehend 🤯

People standing in a cropping field listening to a researcher talk

Strips of different crops in a field.

People standing in an intercropped field listening to a researcher

A spiral shaped intercrop strip

Perfect weather for a field walk and talk in the @w-u-r.bsky.social surrounds. Potatoes, sorghum, intercropping, salinity stress, biodiversity, spiral strips(?)… we saw it all.

Congratulations! You’ll be across the road from me!! Please let me know when you’re in town ☺️

Amazing effort and a game-changing, much needed database of AM fungal distribution and diversity in Australia. Well done, Adam and team!

The most important symbiosis in the world - and don’t forget it!

My time supervised by Maria was formative. And 9 years after leaving her lab, she still remains my only female boss/mentor.

A person giving a talk on a stage with purple lighting. A slide asks the question how do plants treat a symbiont and pathogen in the same cell?

Working with N. benth, Phytophthora, and Funneliformis, @dromius.bsky.social asks how plants treat a symbiont and pathogen in the *same* cell?

The presence of arbuscular mycorrhiza fungi within a cell causes a local change in phospholipid signatures as the pathogen tries to invade.
#2025ISMPMI

A bike tour of Samoa - I need to hear about this! Sounds amazing.

ICOM in Australia!! It’s going to be great 🥳

Brilliant!

Happy Tour de France eve! 💛🚴🏻

Will I get to watch more or less TdF, now that I don’t have to stay up until the wee hours for it? 🤔

Man riding a Dutch cargo bike down a tree-lined bike path in the Netherlands.

I’m not sure anything beats a recreational bike ride after dinner, when it’s still warm (31°C) and sunny, kids totally enamoured with riding in the bakfiets (cargo bike).

This is why we came here ☺️

Dutch stroopwafels in a decorative tin with a clog keychain, sitting on a table with greenery in the background.

The longest journey of our lives, flying 30 hours with a 5-month-old and 3-year-old… but we made it. And there were many welcome gifts from kind friends waiting for us 🇳🇱🧇

A removalist truck being loaded up with boxes and bags.

A small amount of our “stuff” is taking the scenic route to the Netherlands by sea, via Hong Kong 🛳️.

See you in 90-120 days, stuff 👋🏼

If Australian politicians were serious about long term productivity and could read the writing on the wall they would invest heavily in national R&D now including universities.

Getting in that one last Bonds order before leaving Australia 👌🏼

Dr Matthias Salomon at the front of a lecture theatre in front of the title slide “Safe soil, safe food”.

Another day, another public lecture on PFAS 🤔

Thanks Udo! Looking forward to it.

Many thanks Nikolai ☺️

A photo of an old sandstone building on the city campus of the University of Adelaide, taken at dusk.

Close-up photo of the iconic red-brown Forum building at Wageningen University.

The sun is setting on my time at the University of Adelaide (7.5 years) and I’m saying farewell to Australia.

In July, I start as an Assistant Professor at Wageningen University & Research in the Netherlands 🇳🇱

So grateful to my family for taking a leap of faith with me ✈️

Screenshot from Facebook depicting a “memory” from 9 years ago of the boot of a car filled with plant seedlings.

Nine years ago I loaded up a hatchback with sorghum seedlings and drove 1,300 km through 7 states from Cornell Uni (NY) to Clemson Uni (SC), to plant them in the field for a mycorrhiza inoculation experiment.

That postdoc was the time of my life! 🇺🇸

OK, but who decided that teething, sleep regression, and scheduled vaccinations should coincide at the age of four months? 🙃

Prof Rachel Burton standing in front of her title PowerPoint slide “Farming for the future” in a lecture theatre.

Farming for the future - Prof Rachel Burton is going to tell us about the role of emerging and novel crops in our future of food, feed and fibre.

Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi suffer from perfluorooctanoic acid in soil but ameliorate negative effects on plant performance Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) can impact plant growth, while how the symbiosis of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) would affect the res…

New paper out:

Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi suffer from perfluorooctanoic acid in soil but ameliorate negative effects on plant performance

Collab between 4 current or former postdocs in the group to study PFAS effects on AM fungi

www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...