Profile

Professor Jenny Mortimer

• Adelaide University

Jenny Mortimer is a Professor of Plant Synthetic Biology at the School of Agriculture, Food and Wine, University of Adelaide (soon to be Adelaide University), where she also serves as Interim Deputy Director of the Waite Research Institute. She holds an Affiliate Staff Scientist position at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) in the United States.

Her research focuses on understanding and engineering plant cell metabolism – particularly complex glycosylation and cell wall biology – with the aim of developing crops and technologies that support a sustainable, renewable bioeconomy.

She plays key leadership roles in several national and international research initiatives, including:

• ARC Centre of Excellence for Plants for Space – Chief Investigator (CI) & Adelaide Node Lead
• ARC Training Centre for Future Crops – CI & Executive Committee
• ARC Research Hub for Engineering Plants to Replace Fossil Carbon – CI & Theme Lead
• US Department of Energy (DoE) Joint BioEnergy Institute – Director, Plant Systems Biology
• DoE m-CAFEs Scientific Focus Area – Microbial Community Analysis & Functional Evaluation in Soils
• NCRIS/BPA Plant Synthetic Biology Adelaide Node – CI & Executive Committee,

Her group also contributes to pioneering space and sustainability projects, including a UK Space Agency project to develop an autonomous plant growth facility for the Axiom Station, NASA LEAF, a project to create a plant payload for Artemis III, the upcoming mission returning humans to the Moon, and an AEA Ignite initiative led by USQ that uses duckweed and anaerobic digestate to produce biofuels.

Within the ARC Research Hub, her team provides biomass analytical capabilities and co-develops crops with improved cell wall properties for more efficient use in biorefineries.