“Why wouldn’t you?”

November 26, 2025

The Crawford Fund’s inaugural Henzell Awardees delivered truly inspiring presentations about their award experiences this week, with all of them now looking to a future career pathway in international agricultural research.

Introduced in 2024, with the support of Ted and Frances Henzell and family, the Henzell Awards, fund brief visits by Australian undergraduate students to international agricultural research projects in targeted tropical developing countries. The awards aim to encourage undergraduate students to consider further study and careers related to food security by giving them a real-life experience early in their studies.

Four talented university students from the University of Adelaide, the University of Sydney, and the University of Tasmania were awarded our inaugural Henzell Awards. 

“There are no other opportunities like this for undergraduates, it was a great experience, that opened our minds,” said Ava Robertson, from the University of Sydney who travelled to Samoa as part of an ongoing CSIRO and ACIAR project around soil health and soil survey training.

“Ultimately, this experience furthered my enthusiasm to learn how scientific concepts can be applied to critical global challenges. I saw how rural livelihoods, food security, access to resources, and production sustainability can be improved through research and development only possible through long term international relationships,” said Ava Christie from the University of Tasmania who visited an ACIAR project in Vietnam to support acacia and eucalypt breeding.

“I had an amazing time and feel truly empowered for a career in agriculture for development,” said Amelia Ross from the University of Sydney.

Amelia and Shreya Nidumolu travelled to Ethiopia as part of a research visit to a wheat breeding project supported by ACIAR and the GRDC.

“I would encourage other undergraduate students to pursue opportunities like the Henzell Award. Seeing research in action, meeting scientists and policymakers in another country, and contributing to an international effort to improve food security is incredibly inspiring,” said Shreya.

Thank you to our wonderful awardee supervisors, Drs Uta Stockmann, Brendon Malone and Dio Antille from CSIRO, Professor Richard Trethowan from the University of Sydney and Drs Rod Griffith and Chris Harwood from the University of Tasmania who shared their knowledge, passion and insights, and captured these four students into the world of international agriculture research. Thank you also to the passionate and dedicated staff in partner agencies in Samoa, Vietnam and Ethiopia who helped make the experience both possible and successful.

Our 2026 Henzell Awards are now open! We look forward to sharing more of these experiences next year.