Senior Scientist and Joint Appointee
Senior Scientist and Joint Appointee

Biography

Sagadevan Mundree is serving a five-year joint appointment with the Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory (EMSL), a national scientific user facility funded by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Biological and Environmental Research, on the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory campus. Mundree is the Director of Queensland University of Technology's Centre for Agriculture and the Bioeconomy. 

At EMSL, Mundree is developing 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.

Research Interests

  • Biochemistry and Cell Biology
  • Agricultural Biotechnology
  • Industrial Biotechnology

Education

  • Senior Executive Fellows Program, Organizational Leadership, Harvard Kennedy School
  • Executive Fellows Program, Organizational Leadership, Australia and New Zealand School of Government
  • MBA, University of Cape Town
  • PhD, Auburn University, Plant Molecular Biology

Awards and Recognitions

Senior Executive Fellow, Harvard Kennedy School