Jenny Mortimer

Professor Jenny Mortimer is a Professor of Plant Synthetic Biology at the University of Adelaide's School of Agriculture, Food and Wine, and Interim Deputy Director of The Waite Research Institute. She holds affiliate roles at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and the Joint BioEnergy Institute (JBEI) in the USA. Her research focuses on engineering plant cell walls for sustainable biofuels and crops, with a particular emphasis on synthetic biology applications for space agriculture (via the ARC Centre of Excellence Plants for Space) and resilient field crops (ARC Training Centre for Future Crops Development).

Education: PhD from Cambridge University, followed by postdoctoral work in the UK, Japan (RIKEN), and the USA (Berkeley Lab).

Research interests span plant cell metabolism, complex glycosylation, and bioeconomy development. Projects include reengineering plant cell walls for biofuel production (JBEI), enhancing plant-microbiome interactions (US DoE-funded m-CAFES), and developing Australian feedstocks for biojetfuel (ARC Research Hub).

Key awards include World Economic Forum Young Scientist (2016/17) and 2023 Australian Society of Plant Sciences representative for 'Science Meets Parliament.' She is a handling editor for Plant Cell Physiology and The Plant Journal, and actively engages in public outreach.

Grants include leadership in ARC-funded initiatives and collaborations with the US DoE. Supervision opportunities are available for Honours projects focusing on duckweed growth analysis and glycosyltransferase characterization.

Labs/teams: The Waite Research Institute, JBEI, and ARC-funded collaborations.