Rate My Professor Mathew Lewsey

Professor Mathew G. Lewsey is a Professor in the Department of Animal, Plant and Soil Sciences in the Faculty of Science at La Trobe University, Melbourne, Australia, a position he has held since January 2023. He joined the university in April 2016 as Senior Lecturer, advancing to Associate Professor in July 2019. Lewsey obtained his BSc from the University of Bristol (1999-2002) and PhD from the University of Cambridge (2002-2006). His postdoctoral career featured Marie Curie Fellowships at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in La Jolla, USA, with Professor Joe Ecker, and at the Centro Nacional de Biotecnología in Madrid, Spain, with Professor Roberto Solano, where he developed expertise in genomics, transcriptomics, and systems biology.

Lewsey's research explores how plants perceive and interact with their surroundings via gene regulation, bridging fundamental science and applied outcomes. His lab at the La Trobe Institute for Sustainable Agriculture and Food comprises engineers, computational biologists, plant biologists, and genome scientists, collaborating with commercial partners on crops such as tomatoes, cannabis, opium poppies, barley, oats, and peas. He directs the La Trobe Genomics Platform since 2018, overseeing genomic services. Other roles include Node Leader for the ARC Centre of Excellence in Plants for Space since 2022, which advances plant design for off-Earth habitation and terrestrial sustainability; Director of the Australian Plant Phenomics Network at La Trobe University since 2024; Co-Deputy Director of the ARC Industrial Transformation Research Hub for Medicinal Agriculture (2019-2024) and for Protected Cropping (2025-present); Director of Research and Industry Engagement for the School of Life Sciences (2020-2022); Visiting Professor at Universidad Andrés Bello, Chile (2023-present); and co-founder of Plant Synthetic Biology Australia. His work supports collaborative projects, postgraduate supervision, and outreach initiatives.