Rana Ellen Munns

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Rana Ellen Munns FAA and ISI highly cited,^[1] is recognised as a world-leading authority on the mechanisms of salinity tolerance in crop plants.^[2][3] Her primary research has been on dissecting and demonstrating the relative importance of traits that underpin salinity tolerance. She characterised the critical plant processes involved in tolerance of salinity, and showed what distinguishes salinity stress from drought stress. This work produced a highly sensitive technique for identifying salt-tolerant plants, and discovery of important genes for salt tolerance. Recently she discovered novel genes in an ancestral wheat that control the uptake of sodium and prevent it accumulating in leaves. These genes are being transferred to durum wheat and bread wheat cultivars, with the aim of improving grain yield in saline soil. The work resulted in developing a breeding line which yields 25% more than its parent on saline soils in farmers' fields.^[4]

Career[]

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BSc (Hons 1st Class) 1966 Biochemistry Department, University of Sydney
Doctor of Philosophy 1972, CSIRO Plant Physiology Unit, University of Sydney. Chloroplast Development
1973–1976 Senior Tutor, Macquarie University, NSW
1977–1980 Research Fellow, Department of Agronomy, University of Western Australia
1981–2005 Research Scientist CSIRO Plant Industry, Canberra
2005–2010 Chief Research Scientist, CSIRO Division of Plant Industry, Canberra
2011–present Honorary Fellow, CSIRO Plant Industry, Canberra^[5]
2011–2013 Winthrop Research Professor, School of Plant Biology, University of Western Australia
2014–present Emeritus Professor, ARC Centre of Excellence in Plant Energy Biology, jointly with School of Plant Biology^[6]

Former Editor-in-chief of Functional Plant Biology

Honours and awards[]

• 2006 Corresponding Member of American Society of Plant Biologists
• 2012 Thomson Reuters Australia Citation Award for most highly cited plant scientist during 2002–2012^[7]

Professional associations[]

• Life Membership: American Society of Plant Biologists
• 2007 Fellow, Australian Academy of Science (FAA)
• 2009–2010: President, Australian Society of Plant Scientists^[8]
• 2015, Fellow (agriculture), World Academy of Sciences^[9]

Publications[]

• Three patents^{[citation needed]}
• 111 journal articles

References[]