Professor Barry Pogson

Barry is passionate about food security, climate resilient agriculture and training. His expertise is in how plants capture and use energy for growth and how they respond to drought.

His research has revealed crucial pathways by which communication between different parts of a cell influence growth, development, photosynthesis and tolerance to drought. He achieved these understandings by dissecting genetic and metabolic networks that regulate how the site of photosynthesis, the chloroplast, communicates the impacts of changing environmental conditions. His research has enabled new insights into the evolution and function of retrograde signalling networks in gene expression, photosynthesis, leaf development and even water loss during droughts.

Barry has actively sought the translation of basic research into beneficial outcomes and mentors the next generation of leaders in science, policy and industry.

In addition to his role at the ARC Training Centre for Future Crops Development, which was established to train a new generation of researchers and leaders to build new capabilities for agriculture, Barry is also a member of the ANU Institute for Climate Energy and Disaster Solutions, Deputy Director of the ARC Centre of Excellence in Plant Energy Biology, and lead Chief Investigator on an International Wheat Yield Partnership grant to improve wheat yield by optimising energy use efficiency.