While native to Australia and islands to its north, eucalypts are now grown in over 100 countries for diverse purposes ranging from bio-chemicals to pulpwood production. In Australia the major plantation eucalypts are Eucalyptus globulus and E. nitens and while initially established as a pulpwood resource there is now increasing interest in the use of these plantations for other purposes including bioenergy, timber and veneer production. We have been one of the major providers of research backing the breeding and deployment of eucalypts in Australia. We are a research member of Tree Breeding Australia (TBA) which is responsible for the Australian National Eucalyptus globulus breeding program. We work closely with their quantitative geneticists who are research associates of UTAS. We have strong collaboration with Australia’s major plantation companies, including Sustainable Timber Tasmania and Forico, who have provided many field sites for our genetic experiments planted in Tasmania. We also collaborate with the seed producers such as seedEnergy Pty Ltd, who have advanced seed production facilities close to UTAS.

We are looking for Honours and PhD students in projects such as:

• PhD project: Environmental and genotype-by-environment effects on economic traits in Tasmanian grown Eucalyptus nitens
• PhD project: Optimisation of Eucalyptus nitens seed production systems
• PhD project: Breeding and deployment for multi-rotation production systems of Eucalyptus globulus
• PhD project: Genetic control of risk traits in Eucalyptus globulus and E. nitens and relationship with industrial objectives
• PhD project: Spacing and thinning effects on eucalypt wood properties as well as product quantity and quality

Contact: Rebecca Jones