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 previous 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 has been an Adjunct Associate Professor at the University of the Philippines and is now an Adjunct Associate Professor at Charles Sturt University.  Osmat also has a Masters in International Law (distinction) from the Australian National University.

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.

Aparna earned her MSc in Microbiology from Shivaji University, a region of India just south of Mumbai. After coming to Australia, Aparna worked for five years in various areas of pathology at St. Vincent's Hospital in Sydney, including specimen processing, biochemistry and hemotology. Having always enjoyed working in a lab, she is looking forward to working in a research environment and learning more about tissue cultures. Outside of work, Aparna enjoys gardening and Indian classical music.