Dr Thomas Lines

Dr Thomas Lines is an agricultural researcher with qualifications in biotechnology, chemical engineering, and plant/ algal physiology. He has a passion for conducting high quality, applied research that can be of immediate benefit to agricultural industries, such as developing sustainable practices and improving soil health and crop resilience. His research interests and expertise include horticulture, viticulture, soil ecology, AgTech, carbon farming/economics, molecular biology, technology, biochemical engineering, evolution, climate change, ecology, and microbiology.

Through his current position as Research Fellow in the School of Agriculture, Food and Wine, his research focuses on the complex interactions between under-vine cover crops, soil health and perennial horticulture crops. This work has been extended by the funding body, Wine Australia, and has also led to a number of other cover crop related projects, including a recently awarded Hort Innovation funded project (five years) on semi-arid region cover cropping in Almond Orchards.

Dr Lines has a passion for problem solving and science communication, which has aided in developing technical and soft skills that include bioinformatics (Qiime2: NextGen Sequencing analysis), data analysis (R), grant writing, conducting presentations and workshops, outreach, collaborating with industry, and stakeholder engagement.