‘Emerging Voices’ – Inaugural Crawford Fund for Food Security Conference Poster Session
July 9, 2026
The Crawford Fund for Food Security is proud to announce details of nine young researchers who will be presenting their research at Australia’s leading food security event being held in the Great Hall at Parliament House in Canberra on Tuesday 11 August 2026.
“We are very excited to incorporate this new dimension into our annual conference, offering another occasion to promote the next generation of researchers in agriculture for development in Australia,” said Shaun Coffey, Chief Executive, Crawford Fund for Food Security.
“This opportunity for nine “Emerging Voices” involves both a physical poster and a short, three-minute presentation during the main conference program, and builds on both our Conference Scholar Program and an increased number of young speakers at this year’s event to encourage new voices and energy in the sector,” he said.
The inaugural poster session features researchers from seven universities around the country covering a diverse and interesting array of topics and commodities all focused around global food security.
The conference, exploring the theme, Emerging Voices Shaping Regional Integration for a Food Secure World, will once again focus on issues critical to food security, and the timing is perfect, with Australia in the process of developing its first ever national food security strategy, and partnering with our Pacific neighbours to find agri-climate solutions that will feed into crucial discussions at COP31 in Türkiye in November.
Find out more details about the conference, and register here.
Congratulations to our inaugural conference poster session presenters:
Jowell Darwiche, Australian National University
Topic: Identification of Fruit Fly Biomarkers using MALDI-ToF Mass Spectrometry
Amalya Harding, Australian Centre for Pacific Islands Research, University of the Sunshine Coast
Topic: Drivers of change for food security, diets and non-communicable disease risk factors amongst women in peripheral Fijian Communities
Jessica Kriticos, Australian National University, ARC Training Centre in Plant Biosecurity
Topic: Ranking priority plant pests and diseases
Benedetta Longoni, James Cook University
Topic: Investigating small-scale invertebrate fisheries in Timor-Leste, integrating ecological, fisheries, and socio-economic data to understand the role of coastal gleaning in supporting food security across seasons.
Anshul Phaugat, ARC Centre of Excellence in Plants for Space, La Trobe University
Topic: Controlled environment agriculture for food security in extreme environments: optimising light, nutrition and fertigation to improve growth, yield and nutritional quality of baby cucumbers.
Gayathri Rathnayake, Murdoch University
Topic: Genetic mapping and molecular characterisation of candidate genes for aluminium toxicity tolerance in Chickpea.
Abu Bakar Siddique, Tasmanian Institute of Agriculture, University of Tasmania
Topic: Heat stress tolerance in wheat – exploiting pollen viability, stay-green trait and grain-filling for climate-resilient wheat variety development
Thi Mai Huong Tran, University of the Sunshine Coast
Topic: Genomics and genetics of giant freshwater prawn
Chenxiang Zhang, University of New South Wales
Topic: Sustainable aquaculture development through black soldier fly integration into fish feeding strategies in Papua New Guinea.
