Associate Professor Chris Cazzonelli is a distinguished Plant Molecular Biologist at the Hawkesbury Institute for the Environment and a dedicated lecturer at Western Sydney University. Holding a Bachelor of Science with First Class Honours, he earned his PhD in Botany from the University of Queensland in 2002, supported by an esteemed Australian Postgraduate Award focusing on plant stress acclimation at the molecular level. Following this, he received a prestigious United States Department of Agriculture Postdoctoral Fellowship, where he pioneered synthetic biology techniques to engineer gene regulatory systems for enhancing plant genetics. Recruited in 2006 by the ARC Centre of Excellence in Plant Energy Biology at the Australian National University, he delved into the regulation of beneficial carotenoid metabolites in crops, a contribution recognised with the Goldacre Medal by the Australian Society of Plant Biologists in 2010. Currently, as head of the Environmental Epigenetics Laboratory (EELab), Assoc. Prof. Cazzonelli leads groundbreaking research into genetic regulatory mechanisms, metabolic feedback loops governing communication between plastids and the nucleus, and processes that facilitate memory formation to prime plants for stress acclimation in response to environmental changes such as light quality, mechanical stimulation, bioacoustics, and cell vibrations. The EELab specialises in advancing our understanding of carotenoid regulation for enhanced photoprotection and photosynthesis, driving improvements in crop yield and nutritional quality under varying light conditions, with far-reaching benefits for human and animal health. Our research also pioneers advancements in smart films for horticultural protected cropping, automated crop monitoring, precision non-contact pollination techniques, and the genetics underlying next-generation orchard production.
