Sagadevan Mundree

Joint Appointee

Sagadevan Mundree is a senior scientist serving a five-year joint appointment with the Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory (EMSL). He is the Director of Queensland University of Technology's Centre for Agriculture and the Bioeconomy. 

At EMSL, Mundree is working with scientists to develop approaches for plant productivities and nutrient acquisition to guarantee economic feasibility of bioenergy crops and to improve our understanding of the role of plant–microbe interactions in drought tolerance and stress resistance. The research will include using a sustainable source of biomass feedstock like switchgrass or sweet sorghum that can be processed and used to produce fuels and renewable energy.

Mundree has more than 25 years of research experience studying how to enhance stress tolerance in plants to develop both resilient food crops and bioenergy crops. He has an extensive background in working with organisms known as extremophiles, which can survive in high-temperature and highly acidic environments.