Biography
Owen Atkin is based at the Australian National University in Canberra, with two roles occupying his time. The first is as Director of the Agrifood Innovation Institute whose role is to harness the university’s interdisciplinary capabilities to address complex challenges facing the agrifood sector. The second is as a professor of plant science where his lab is assessing the impact of environmental gradients on plant physiological processes across a range of spatial and temporal scales. Short and long-term manipulations of temperature have been used to investigate biochemical, physiological and morphological responses of plants; this includes detailed characterisation of responses of respiration and photosynthesis to extreme heat. Field studies from the Arctic to tropical forests and deserts have provided insights into how leaf carbon exchange differs among species adapted to thermally contrasting habitats. He has worked with partners to improve the representation of plant carbon exchange in global climate models. His lab has used advances in high-throughput measurements of gas exchange - linked to hyperspectral analyses - to screen for variations in leaf energy use efficiency and heat tolerance in crops and natural ecosystems. Owen has been an editor for New Phytologist since 2007.
