Ben Irvine RSBS Summer Scholar

Expression of Genes which are known to effect water use efficiency (drought tolerance)

Ben worked on a project related to drought tolerance in the Environmental Biology group and researched a wheat gene to see how it affects water use efficiency. Choosing to do a summer scholarship was an opportunity for Ben to expand his horizons and gain some research experience before beginning his honours degree later this year.

Ben is in the third year of his Environmental Science degree which he is undertaking at Flinders University in Adelaide. He visited RSBS in 2007 to attend the inaugural Winter School, Frontiers in Biology, and during this time was fascinated by the work being conducted by some of our researchers and subsequently found out about the summer research scholarship program.

Ben states that a highlight of his experience at RSBS was the “well chosen and thought out project” which his supervisor had set out for him. Throughout the process he had the ability to learn and try various techniques such as gene expression, plant physiology and CO2 gas exchange.

When not working hard at RSBS, Ben also enjoyed the social aspect of the summer scholarship program living on campus getting to know a new group of people from all over Australia.

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