
Associate Professor Bettina Berger
Scientific Director - The Plant Accelerator
School of Agriculture, Food and Wine
Faculty of Sciences
Eligible to supervise Masters and PhD - email supervisor to discuss availability.
After a degree in biotechnology and a PhD in molecular biology of plants, I used a two-year fellowship to focus on the emerging field of plant phenomics. I joined the Australian Centre for Plant Functional Genomics in 2008, where I used non-destructive imaging to study the effects of salinity on barley.
When The Plant Accelerator opened in 2010, I joined the team as Senior Scientist and became Scientific Director in 2015. The Plant Accelerator is one of the nodes of the Australian Plant Phenomics Facility (APPF) funded under the National Collaborative Infrastructure Strategy (NCRIS) and provides critical infrastructure and services to the plant science community in Australia and abroad. In my roles, I have set up novel screening techniques to study plant growth and performance using automated, non-destructive imaging. I have engaged with researchers at all stages of their career, from the public sector and industry. Users of The Plant Accelerator include Australian researchers, as well as overseas customers from Europe, North America and Saudi Arabia, and I enjoy the possibility of hosting visiting students and scientists and train them in modern phenotyping approaches. I have managed large scale phenotyping projects looking at various aspects of crop performance, including early vigour, salinity tolerance and nutrient use efficiency.
While my basic research has focused on salinity tolerance, I am equally passionate about developing novel phenotyping approaches to support plant scientists in answering their research questions. Working together with customers and learning from each other to achieve the best possible outcome for their research project has been my biggest motivation.
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Appointments
Date Position Institution name 2015 Scientific Director The University of Adelaide 2010 - 2015 Senior Scientist The University of Adelaide 2008 - 2010 Feodor-Lynen Research Fellow ACPFG, University of Adelaide 2007 - 2008 Research Assistant University of Cologne -
Language Competencies
Language Competency English Can read, write, speak, understand spoken and peer review French Can read, write, speak and understand spoken German Can read, write, speak, understand spoken and peer review -
Education
Date Institution name Country Title 2003 - 2007 International Max-Planck Research School, Cologne Germany PhD in Plant Science 2000 - 2003 Ecole Superieure de Biotechnology, Strasbourg France Master in Biotechnology 1998 - 2000 Eberhardt-Karls University, Tuebingen Germany Undergraduate Diploma in Biology -
Research Interests
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Journals
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Book Chapters
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Conference Papers
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Conference Items
Year Citation 2019 Liu, H., Bruning, B., Berger, B., & Garnett, T. (2019). Green plant segmentation in hyperspectral images using SVM and hyper-hue. Poster session presented at the meeting of Proceedings: 7th International Workshop on Image Analysis Methods for the Plant Sciences (IAMPS 2019). Lyon, France. 2016 Konate, M., Wilkinson, M. J., Scott, E., Mayne, B., Berger, B., & Rodriguez Lopez, C. M. (2016). Tissue specificity of salinity stress induced DNA methylation markers in barley (Hordeum vulgare). Poster session presented at the meeting of ComBio 2016. Brisbane. -
Datasets
Year Citation — Berger, B., Jewell, N., Brien, C., Power, S., Woodin, S., Pendall, E., & Ball, K. (n.d.). Supplementary data - High-throughput, image-based phenotyping reveals nutrient-dependent growth facilitation in a grass – legume mixture - PLoS One.
Recent grants and funding:
Dates | Role | Grant |
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2020-2022 | Lead CI | Australian Research Data Commons - OzBarley, from genome to phenome and back |
2018-2023 | CI | National Collaborative Research Infrastructure Strategy (NCRIS) – Australian Plant Phenomics Facility |
2013-2019 | CI | National Collaborative Research Infrastructure Strategy (NCRIS) – Australian Plant Phenomics Facility |
2019-2023 | CI | SA Department for Industry and Skills – The Plant Accelerator |
2020-2023 | Lead CI |
GRDC – Improved late maturity alpha-amylase screening |
2020-2023 | CI | AgriFutures - New technologies for oaten hay phenotyping |
2020-2022 | CI | GRDC – Machine learning to extract maximum value from soil and crop variability |
2019-2021 | CI | GRDC plus co-contributions – Accelerating wheat genetic gain by establishing a high-throughput spike phenotyping platform |
2018-2019 | CI | Australian Research Data Commons – Agricultural Research Data Cloud |
2013-2016 | CI | GRDC – Development of salinity tolerant wheat and barley |
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Current Higher Degree by Research Supervision (University of Adelaide)
Date Role Research Topic Program Degree Type Student Load Student Name 2019 Principal Supervisor Development of Sensor-based Phenotyping Approaches for Ascochyta Blight Resistance Breeding of Chickpea Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Mr Florian Carl-August Tanner -
Past Higher Degree by Research Supervision (University of Adelaide)
Date Role Research Topic Program Degree Type Student Load Student Name 2016 - 2020 Principal Supervisor The Measurement of Nutrient Levels and Yield Constraints in Wheat (Triticum aestivum) Using Hyperspectral Sensing Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Mrs Brooke Bruning 2015 - 2019 Co-Supervisor Quantifying Nitrogen Use Efficiency in Wheat Using High-Precision Phenotyping Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Mr Nicholas John Sitlington Hansen 2013 - 2017 Principal Supervisor Assessment of Stress-induced and Developmentally-induced DNA Methylation Changes in Barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Mr Moumouni Konate 2012 - 2014 Co-Supervisor Salinity detection and control of sodium transport in Arabidopsis thaliana Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Miss Sandra Manuela Schmoeckel 2010 - 2014 Co-Supervisor Modifying sodium transport to improve salinity tolerance of commercial rice cultivars (Oryza sativa L.) Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Mr . Aris Hairmansis
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Offices Held
Date Office Name Institution Country 2015 - ongoing Chair - Expert Working Group - Wheat Phenotyping to Support Wheat Improvement Wheat Initative —
Connect With Me
External Profiles