Kathryn Reardon-Smith

Dr. Kathryn Reardon-Smith is a Senior Lecturer at the University of Southern Queensland, affiliated with the School of Agriculture and Environmental Science. She holds a PhD from USQ and has expertise in climate change adaptation, sustainable agriculture, and environmental management. Her work focuses on climate-smart agricultural practices, water resource management, ecological resilience, and decision-support systems for farmers.

Educational Background: BSc (Hons) in Natural Resources (University of New England), MSc (Deakin University), PhD (University of Southern Queensland).

Research Interests: Climate resilience in agriculture, drought impacts, sustainable water use, ecosystem ecology, and policy integration for climate adaptation. Her interdisciplinary approach combines ecological modeling, socio-economic analysis, and participatory methods to address agricultural challenges under climate variability.

Recent research highlights include developing frameworks for seasonal climate forecasting in farming decisions, analyzing groundwater thresholds for drought resilience, and evaluating the value of virtual tools for farmer education. She collaborates with industry and government on initiatives such as the Northern Australia Climate Program and the Drought Climate Adaptation Program.

Supervision: Principal/Associate Supervisor for over 15 doctoral and master’s students focusing on climate resilience, agricultural systems modeling, and biodiversity conservation. Current projects include climate-smart agriculture in Vietnam and ecosystem responses to fire regimes.

Affiliations: Centre for Applied Climate Sciences and Centre for Sustainable Agricultural Systems. Her work bridges academia and practice, emphasizing real-world applications of research to enhance agricultural sustainability and community resilience.