Secure planet
Improving our crops
Associate Professor Brian Atwell wants to feed the planet. Conservative estimates show that the Earth’s temperature will rise on average 0.9 degrees Celsius over the next century, which could mean disaster for plants that are highly sensitive to their environment. Atwell’s team has found a gene in heat-tolerant rices in northern Australia that allows photosynthesis at higher temperatures, enabling higher productivity of the plant.
“There will be a group of people who have an open mind about using wild plants in Australia to try to improve the 15 or 20 major foods that feed almost everybody on this planet,” Atwell says.
Our secure planet future-shaping research priority focuses on sustaining our interdependent world and exploring our place in the universe.
Living in a changing environment
Our cross-disciplinary research teams explore and understand the environment and its chemical, biological, climactic, and physical variations across space and time. With climate change among our greatest challenges, we seek to manage risks, reduce vulnerability and promote resilience in human, economic and natural systems impacted by this change. Our research informs management practices and provides a basis for effective decision-making at local, national and global levels.
Exploring planet Earth and beyond
We investigate the constitution and properties of the components of our universe, with cross-disciplinary research teams working across astronomy and astrophysics, Earth sciences and planetary sciences. We shed light on our planet and beyond – from the internal structure of the Earth, to the habitability of extra-solar planets and galaxies in the furthest reaches of the universe.
Research centres
National
ARC Centre of Excellence for Core to Crust Fluid Systems
ARC Centre for Fruit Fly Biosecurity Innovation
ARC Industrial Transformation Training Centre - ARC Training Centre for Molecular Technology in the Food Industry (ITTC)
ARC National Key Centre for Geochemical Evolution and Metallogeny of Continents (GEMOC)
National Centre for Climate Change Adaption Research Facility (NCCARF)
University
Biomolecular Discovery Research Centre (formerly Biomolecular Frontiers Research Centre)
Biosecurity Futures Research Centre
Centre in Astronomy, Astrophysics & Astrophotonics (MQAAAstro)
Macquarie University Planetary Research Centre
Species Spectrum Research Centre
Faculty
Centre for Advanced Computing - Algorithms and Cryptography (ACAC)
Centre for Environmental Law (CEL)
Produced Water Research Centre (PWRC)
Department
Advanced Cyber Security Research Centre
Other
Australian Research Institute in Education for Sustainability (ARIES)
Risk Frontiers (formerly the Natural Hazards Research Centre)
Research groups
Animal Behaviour Research Group
Atmospheric Chemistry Research Group
Avian Behavioural Ecology Group
Behaviour, Ecology and Evolution of Fishes Lab
Behavioural Biology Research Group
Climate And Forest Ecosystem Modelling
Conservation Genetics Research Group
Environmental earth science Group
Environmental quality and contaminants Group
Forest Ecology and Spatial Modelling Group
Freshwater Ecology and Ecotoxicology Lab
Macquarie’s Geophysics and Geodynamics Group
Marine and Coastal Phytoplankton Lab
Marine and Freshwater Biology Lab
Marine Predator Research Group
PACE Research Collaborations Network
Plant Invasion and Restoration Ecology Lab
Plant-Insect Interactions and Climate Change Ecology Lab
Quantitative Ecology and Evolution
Research facilities
Environmental Quality laboratory
Macquarie University Centre for Analytical Biotechnology