Delphine Fleury

Delphine Fleury

School of Agriculture, Food and Wine

Faculty of Sciences, Engineering and Technology

Eligible to supervise Masters and PhD - email supervisor to discuss availability.


Delphine is the director of the ARC Industrial Research Transformation Hub for wheat in a hot and dry climate. She leads a research group of the School of Agriculture, Food and Wine at University of Adelaide focusing on wheat and barley production, genetic diversity and adaptation to low rainfall environments.

Delphine's research interests are in plant genetics, genomics and breeding, with a particular focus on gene function and crop adaptation to environmental stress.

Delphine obtained a her PhD in 2001 on sunflower at the ENSAT (Toulouse, France) with two breeding companies (Maisadour and Caussade semences). She worked on Arabidopsis development as a postdoctorate researcher at the Department of Plant Systems Biology (VIB, Ghent, Belgium). She joined the Australian Centre for Plant Functional Genomics in Adelaide in 2006. In 2006-2009, she worked on comparative genomics in wheat and barley in collaboration with EU TriticeaeGenome consortium. In 2010, she became partner on the DROPS European FP7 project on drought-tolerant yielding plants (2009-2015). In 2012-2013, she worked as a consultant for Generation Challenge Program (Mexico) on the Integrated Breeding Platform. In 2012, she led the Native traits for wheat research program funded by Dupont. In 2015, Delphine was CI and Translation manager of the ARC Industrial Research Transformation Hub for wheat in a hot and dry climate until she became director of the Hub in 2017.

  • Appointments

    Date Position Institution name
    2019 - ongoing Affiliate Researcher University of Adelaide
    2019 - ongoing Sunflower project lead INNOLEA
    2017 - 2019 ARC director of ITRH University of Adelaide
    2012 - 2016 Genetics leader (research level C) University of Adelaide
    2011 - 2012 Research leader University of Adelaide
    2006 - 2010 Postdoctoral fellow University of Adelaide
  • Awards and Achievements

    Date Type Title Institution Name Country Amount
    2012 Award 2nd best talk at the Research Leadership workshop Waite Institute Australia -
    2009 Award Best contributed paper Rank Prize Funds United Kingdom -
  • Language Competencies

    Language Competency
    English Can read, write, speak, understand spoken and peer review
    French Can read, write, speak, understand spoken and peer review
  • Education

    Date Institution name Country Title
    1998 - 2001 National Polytechnic Institute of Toulouse France PhD Molecular genetics
    1996 - 1997 University of Rennes 1 France MSc's Genetics, phytopathology, adaptation and plant production
    1994 - 1996 University of Rennes 1 France BSc’s Chemistry and plant biology
  • Postgraduate Training

    Date Title Institution Country
    2002 - 2006 Postdoctoral fellow Flanders Institute for Biotechnology Belgium
  • Research Interests

Date Grant Project title Role Funding and staff
2015-2020 Australian Research Council Industrial Transformation Research Hub (IH130200027) Genetic diversity and molecular breeding for wheat in a hot and dry climate Director AUD 11,000k
2015-2017 Australia-India Strategic Research Fund (AISRF33760) Mining alleles for heat tolerance of wheat in Australian and Indian environments for development of heat resilient cultivars Lead CI AUD 200k
2014-2017 Premier’s Research and Industry Fund’s International Research Grant Program Molecular diversity drive for precision-engineered wheat co-CI AUD 292k
2012-2015 Dupont Native traits for wheat lead CI  
2012-2015 South Australian Grain Industry Trust Fund (UA1202) Improved drought stress tolerance in barley co-CI AUD 264k
2009-2015 DROPS European Union Framework Programme 7 (FP7-KBBE-244374) Drought-tolerant yielding plants co-CI EUR 9,702k
2010-2015 Grain Research and Development Corporation (UMU00037) International Wheat Genome Sequencing Consortium assembly of chromosome 7 co-CI AUD 750k
  • Past Higher Degree by Research Supervision (University of Adelaide)

    Date Role Research Topic Program Degree Type Student Load Student Name
    2016 - 2020 Co-Supervisor Identification of Novel Loci and Alleles for Drought and Heat Stress Tolerance in Wheat Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Ms Jessica Schmidt
    2014 - 2018 Principal Supervisor Towards the positional cloning of yield QTL on chromosome 1B for drought tolerance in wheat Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Dr Habtamu Seboka Tura
    2014 - 2018 Principal Supervisor Genes, haplotypes and physiological traits associated with a chromosome 3B locus for wheat improvement in hot climates Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Ms Pauline Thomelin
    2013 - 2017 Co-Supervisor Identification of Salt Tolerance Genes in Bread Wheat Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Dr Ahsan Asif
    2013 - 2017 Principal Supervisor Differential Allele Response to Drought and Heat at Two Closely-Linked Quantitative Trait Loci on Chromosome 7A in Wheat (Triticum Aestivum L.) Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Mr Fabio Arsego
    2012 - 2016 Principal Supervisor The Genetic Basis of Barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) Adaptation to Australian Environment Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Mr Bulti Tesso Obsa

Connect With Me
External Profiles

Other Links