Eloise Foo

Professor Eloise Foo is a Professor and Associate Head (Students) in Biological Sciences at the University of Tasmania's School of Natural Sciences. Her research focuses on plant-microbe symbioses, particularly the roles of plant hormones like strigolactones, gibberellins, and auxin in nutrient acquisition. She leads an ARC Centre of Excellence for Plant Success and holds an ARC Future Fellowship. Her work explores symbiotic relationships in legumes, aiming to reduce reliance on fertilizers through natural nitrogen fixation.

Education: PhD in Plant Developmental Genetics from the University of Queensland (2004). Postdoctoral work at UTAS with Jim Reid and Jim Weller. Career highlights include securing over $35M in ARC grants and co-receiving the 2020 MR Banks Medal for plant-microbe interaction research.

Research Themes: Symbiotic nutrient acquisition, strigolactone signaling, hormone cross-talk in legumes. Key projects include decoding symbiosis signals and expanding beneficial microbes to non-legumes. Over 75 publications, with recent focus on CLAVATA signaling and hormone-specific root layer effects.

Awards: MR Banks Medal (2020), ARC Future Fellowship (2014-2020), ARC Discovery Grants. Supervised 9+ PhD students including Karen Velandia and Chenglei Wang. Active in teaching genetics, cell biology, and plant development.

Labs/Teams: Leads the Plant-Microbe Interactions Lab at UTAS. Collaborates internationally on symbiosis research, including with ANU and French institutions.