Laura is a plant biologist with expertise in plant reproduction and seed development, and a passion for translational research and plant breeding. Laura gained a BSc in Molecular Biology from the University of Adelaide in medical genetics and biochemistry before making the jump to plant science, supported by Coopers Brewery and the Playford Memorial Trust for her Honours project on malting barley at the ARC Centre of Excellence in Plant Cell Walls. Laura completed a PhD in 2019 under the supervision of Prof. Matt Tucker. Her PhD was about how barley plants grow fertile ovules, and the role that the nucellus - aka the plant's version of a placenta - plays in crop fertility and yield. Following her PhD Laura undertook a postdoc at the John Innes Centre (UK), where she researched how environmental cues influence genetic regulation of stem cell fate in brassica crops. In other words, trying to answer the question: how is climate change messing up crop flowering time? When she returned to Adelaide, Laura was affiliated with Australian Grains Technology as a Plant Breeding Research Fellow. Her role involved liasing between academia and industry, and researching farming systems to identify future opportunities for breeding programs in Australia. Laura currently runs the University's plant breeding and research programs for two species, hops and amaranth.