Richard Trethowan

Professor Richard Trethowan is a Professor of Plant Breeding and Director of the Plant Breeding Institute at the University of Sydney's School of Life and Environmental Sciences. He also serves as Theme Leader for Plant Breeding and Production at the Sydney Institute of Agriculture. He holds a B.Sc. and PhD from the University of Sydney.

His research focuses on improving crop productivity under abiotic stresses, particularly in wheat breeding and genetics. Key areas include drought adaptation, heat tolerance, and quality improvement in cereal crops. He leads national and international initiatives to enhance crop resilience in stressed environments.

Recent work emphasizes temperature effects on wheat protein composition, heat tolerance in leaf carbon exchange, and modeling temperature stress impacts on chickpea genotypes. He directs the IA Watson Grain Research Centre and collaborates on grants addressing climate change impacts on agriculture.

He holds patents for wheat varieties 'Murasaki' and 'Purpura' (2019). His research has been featured in news articles on climate change adaptation and crop resilience.