Philipp Bayer

Philipp Bayer is an Adjunct Research Fellow at the University of Western Australia (UWA) and a Principal in the OceanOmics project at the Minderoo Foundation. His roles include computational biology research focused on plant genomics, machine learning applications in genomics, and environmental DNA (eDNA) methods for ocean biodiversity monitoring. He holds a PhD from the University of Queensland (UQ) and has held positions such as a Forrest Fellowship and DECRA fellowship, focusing on wheat breeding and evolutionary genomics. Bayer is a member of the UWA Data Institute's Research Committee and the Scientific Advisory Committee for the ARDC Machine Learning CoP.

Education and Career Highlights:

• PhD in Plant Genomics, UQ (2016)
• DECRA Fellowship at UWA (2021–2023), studying plant gene evolution
• Forrest Fellowship (2018–2020) on wheat genomics and machine learning
• Principal, Computational Biology, Minderoo Foundation (2022–present)

Research Interests:

• Plant pangenomics and genome evolution
• Machine learning for crop improvement and biodiversity analysis
• eDNA-based marine biodiversity monitoring
• Genetic mechanisms underlying crop domestication

Grants and Collaborations:

• GRDC: Machine learning for canola disease resistance
• ARC DECRA: Evolutionary genomics of plant genes
• Collaborations with BASF, Intergrain, and the OceanOmics initiative

Awards: Finalist in the 2019 WA Premier’s Science Award.

Labs/Teams: Leads the OceanOmics project and organizes Hacky Hour (code/data support sessions).