Speakers
Dr Zahra Islam
Event Essentials
Dr Zahra Islam is a microbial ecologist working as a research fellow within the ARC Research Hub for Smart Fertilisers. Her research focuses on understanding plant-soil-microbiome interactions, where she develops high throughput methods to isolate and screen beneficial microbes that can be used in biofertilisers to enhance plant growth, as well as the effects of newly developed smart fertilisers on microbial communities. Her work encompasses multidisciplinary techniques including both culture-dependent and culture-independent methods to understand the nuances of symbiotic as well as pathogenic interactions between soils, plants and their associated microbes.
Her commitment to understanding the role of microorganisms in biogeochemical cycling in different ecosystems has been recently recognised by the awarding of two research grants to look into the hydrogen scavenging capacity of microorganisms in agroecosystems from the University of Melbourne (ECR grant) and the Australian Academy of Sciences (Thomas Davies Research Grant for Marine, Soil and Plant Biology).
Outside of research, Zahra is passionate about scientific communication and outreach, serving on the executive committees for ASM Victoria (2023 to present), MEEM (2021 to present), AusME (2022) and SECAN (2023 to present), as well as authoring media releases in the Microbiologist (Applied Microbiology International), the Conversation, Behind the Paper (ISME J) and the Monash Lens.
Associate Professor Carlo Carere’s research focuses on applying fundamental microbiological research to a range of biotechnologies that address global challenges in public health, food production, water security, energy independence and environmental sustainability.
For more than a decade, he has combined principles of biosystems engineering and bioreactor design with an understanding of metabolism, physiology and ecology to advance applied microbiology. His work has given particular attention to the physiological role and expression of oxygen-tolerant [NiFe] respiratory hydrogenases and the application of extremophilic methane-oxidising bacteria to produce biofeedstocks. He is also interested in the microbial production of environmentally friendly bioplastics from organic wastes, microbial denitrification of wastewaters and bioremediation.