Thomas J Higgins International Plant Molecular Biology Conference 2024

Thomas J Higgins

TJ Higgins is an Honorary Fellow at CSIRO Agriculture and Food. His current research focus is the application of gene technology for plant improvement. He is particularly interested in protecting food legumes from insect pests and enhancing photosynthesis in cowpeas for increased grain yield for food uses. Most of his current work is aimed at increasing food security in Africa and South Asia. His earlier work was on the biochemistry and molecular biology of legume seed protein and was aimed at improving the level of sulfur-containing amino acids. Originally from Ireland, Higgins’ first degrees were in agricultural science from the National University of Ireland. He gained a PhD from the University of California, Davis and moved to Australia as a Post-doctoral Fellow at the Australian National University. Shortly after, he joined CSIRO Plant Industry, from which he retired as a Chief Research Scientist and Deputy Chief. He was elected a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Technology and Engineering, the Australian Academy of Science, the American Association for the Advancement of Science and a Corresponding Member of the American Society of Plant Biologists. More details are here https://people.csiro.au/H/T/Tj-Higgins