Dr Evans Lagudah

Evans Lagudah is a Chief Research Scientist at CSIRO. He received his BSc from the University of Ghana and PhD from The University of Melbourne. He is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science and also an adjunct professor at the University of Sydney, with the School of Life and Environmental Sciences. Lagudah leads a team with a research spectrum covering basic studies on the molecular basis of race non-specific resistance, adult plant rust resistance, cloning of wheat resistance genes, genomic analyses of targeted disease resistance traits and the identification and utilisation of molecular markers for disease resistance breeding. Among his research highlights was defining the molecular basis of adult plant rust resistance genes which represent novel classes of plant defence genes (Science 2009, Nature Genetics 2015) that function broadly in cereal crops against multiple pathogens. He also led the team that isolated one of the first encoding genes that confers resistance against the highly virulent Ug99 stem rust pathogen (Science 2013) and contributed to advances in mutational genomics for rapid isolation of resistance genes from complex genomes (Nature Biotechnology 2016). Lagudah operates at the interface between agriculture and fundamental molecular research and his research ensures the rapid translation of new molecular discoveries into practical agriculture in the global grains industry. He is a co-recipient of the Borlaug Gene Stewardship award.