Molecular Technologies Team

Osmat is the lead scientist on the Lemelson Foundation-funded project on Bioindicators to develop molecular modules to engineer plants as living instruments, to provide farmers with valuable, timely and low-cost means to measure and monitor the status of their natural resource options.

The model plant for this project is rice, a species with which Osmat has extensive research experience.  Osmat was manager of a rice genomics project funded by NSF at the University of Wisconsin (Madison) Biotechnology Center from 1999-2001, following a five year tenure as Senior Scientist & Leader of the virology program of the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) in the Philippines, where she developed robust, user-friendly diagnostic kits for important rice viruses, designed to be used by farmers and breeders.

Osmat received her PhD from Cornell University, and BSc and MSc from the American University of Beirut.  She had also previously worked in the International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA) and in a USAID project with Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic through a bean/cowpea CRSP project.

Osmat also has a Masters in International Law from the Australian National University in Canberra.  Her thesis focused on the accountability and transparency mechanisms in the internal laws of International organizations.  She currently holds a full time research professorial appointments in both the Faculty of Science & Technology and the Faculty of Law at QUT.

Royd is originally from Idaho, and spent his early years working for his family's business developing new breeds of the grain teff and promoting their use in America. He did his B.A. in biology at Reed College in Portland, Oregon, where he did a thesis on telomere proteins. After research experiences including working on teff breeding at Cornell University, he traveled in Africa trying to learn Somali before finding himself in Australia, where he decided to do his PhD working on bacterial type IV secretion systems through the ANU under Dr. Richard Jefferson. Royd is currently on a leave of absence to complete a round the world trip.