Sagadevan Mundree

Professor Sagadevan Mundree is a world-leading expert in agricultural biotechnology leading research and teams focused on making crops that are more resilient to environmental stresses such as drought and salinity, and value-addition to deliver nutritious products. As a 4th generation South African of Indian origin, he was the first generation to have had the opportunity to receive a complete primary and secondary school education. Hence, he has been determined to use this opportunity to maintain a strong focus on transdisciplinary solutions for challenges facing vulnerable populations in food scarcity and the effects of climate change on food quality and food production.

Prof Mundree is a broker of sorts, not only personally conducting the field-leading research needed to optimise crop production, but bringing together people who collectively can transform the way agricultural practices are designed and used. For instance, he was instrumental in developing a strategic partnership with the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) (a leading US Department of Energy (DOE) National Laboratory), which resulted in knowledge sharing and knowledge creation in plant biotechnology, bioenergy (leading to renewable fuels) and synthetic biology. His joint appointment with PNNL (the first held by a foreign national) reflects the esteem his North American colleagues hold him in and one that he has used to create further opportunities for impactful projects, such as the development of a climate-smart multi-purpose crop that is a feedstock for food and energy.

He has enabled strategic partnerships as well between Life Sciences Queensland and the renowned Canadian University of Manitoba Richardson Center for Food Technology and Research. This partnership led to joint projects around the practical, scalable use of native foods, such as the Kakadu plum, and sharing knowledge about how Indigenous plants can be used to change the narrative on crop types and environmentally sustainable and resilient food production. This led to a collaboration with a local Indigenous company in Queensland to farm native rice at commercial scale.

Prof Mundree also believes in including consumers in science and technology translation. For example, he worked with year 9 Food Studies students from Kelvin Grove State College (the largest public school in Australia), to encourage recipe experimentation using 'pulse' flours. Consequently, he engineered, in collaboration with a local food manufacturer, Majans Pty Ltd, commercially viable chickpea and mungbean products, that are now being commercialised and will be available nationally on supermarket shelves.

How the concepts of the circular economy can be used to develop sustainable food production approaches is also a passion of Prof Mundree’s. He has led large-scale, multi-stakeholder projects that have been designed to not only produce high quality, high yield crops, under sub-optimal environmental conditions, but use the agricultural waste to create value. An example of this is his work producing graphene-like carbon from waste from rice husks and straw. These high value waste products have been demonstrated as an efficient filter for water purification and for use in batteries.

Prof Mundree is a Fulbright Scholar, and a winner of the BIOAfrica President’s Award in recognition of his leadership in developing research, development and commercialisation programs for the African biotechnology sector.

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Do you have any examples of outcomes yet in terms of high value waste use?