Rate My Professor Roslyn Gleadow

Roslyn Gleadow is Emeritus Professor in the School of Biological Sciences, Faculty of Science at Monash University, and Head of the Plant Ecophysiology Research Group. She earned her PhD in Botany from the University of Melbourne. Gleadow's research focuses on the effects of climate change on food security, particularly in plants that produce cyanide as a defense against herbivores, such as cassava, sorghum, taro, and cycads. Her investigations cover scales from molecular mechanisms to ecosystems, analyzing impacts of elevated CO₂, temperature, and salinity on growth, resource allocation, toxicity, and invasive species like Pittosporum undulatum.

Gleadow's career includes leadership as President of the Australian Society of Plant Scientists from 2010 to 2012 and President of the Global Plant Council from 2019 to 2021. She chairs Eucalypt Australia and the International Safe Cassava Working Group, and previously coordinated Monash's Plant Science area of study and directed the Agtech LaunchPad. She supervised honours, masters, and PhD students, taught courses on plant science, global change, plant ecology, science communication, and food security, and pioneered new technology in higher education. Awards include Fellowship of the Australian Academy of Science, the Faculty of Science Dean's Award for Excellence in Teaching in 2008, Faculty awards for innovation, external collaboration, and research supervision. Key publications are 'Cyanogenic glycosides: synthesis, physiology, and phenotypic plasticity' (Annual Review of Plant Biology, 2014), 'Cassava: the drought, war and famine crop in a changing world' (Sustainability, 2010), 'Sequencing wild and cultivated cassava and related species reveals extensive interspecific hybridization and genetic diversity' (Nature Biotechnology, 2016), and 'Cassava' (Current Biology, 2023). She presents public lectures on rising CO₂ effects on food security and cyanide's health impacts, and serves on policy committees including the Royal Society of Victoria and Australian Academy of Science national committees.