Professor Helen Wallace
Faculty of Science,
Office of the Deputy Dean
Biography
Professor Helen Wallace has over 35 years of experience in agriculture, ecology and the intersection of these. Her research is concentrated on trees and bees, and she finds ways to increase food production at the same time as improving environmental outcomes. She works closely with subtropical and tropical tree industries in both Australia and the Pacific. Her research projects have spanned topics such as horticulture, food processing, forest restoration, forestry, pollination, bee ecology and bee conservation.
Throughout her career she has managed a research portfolio of external funding worth over $50 million and led projects worth over $22 million from diverse funding sources including ACIAR, ARC, Hort Innovation, Queensland Government and direct industry funding. She has supervised of 22 PhD, 5 MSc students and 22 Honours students.
She completed her Ph.D at the University of Queensland in 1994 and then held positions at both Central Qld University and Latrobe University. In 1997 she was appointed as a foundation staff member at the newly established University of the Sunshine Coast. She played a formative role in building the teaching and research profile of UniSC, from the earliest days of the institution. She moved to Griffith University in 2019, and has held a range of senior leadership roles including Dean of Graduate Studies, Associate Dean, Research, and Director of research centres at both Griffith University and University of the Sunshine Coast.
Personal details
Positions
- Deputy Dean
Faculty of Science,
Office of the Deputy Dean
Qualifications
- PhD (University of Queensland)
Experience
She leads large transdisciplinary research teams that work closely with a range of agriculture industries in Australia, and with smallholder farmers through the Pacific. Her work in Australia has found ways to:
- improve pollination across a range of crops,
- commercialize medicinally significant tree crops,
- reduce food waste and
- improve nutrient management, soil carbon and sustainability of tree crops in Australia.
Her research in the Pacific is focused on improving the livelihoods of indigenous peoples, especially women. Her work has been instrumental in setting up new industries based on fruits and nuts from the rainforest. This work has improved the incomes of thousands of smallholder farmers in the Pacific. In the Fiji and Solomon Islands, her projects have empowered women to set up microenterprises based on small-scale food processing. https://vimeo.com/423068750/c6c4431839, https://vimeo.com/389910080/eefd3ed6ac
Other positions include:
- Member of the ARC ERA Research Evaluation Committee (2010, 2012, 2018).
- Chaired a Qld Government Ministerial Advisory Committee.
- Specialty Chief Editor Frontiers in Bee Science.
Publications
Filter publications:
A complete list of publications is available at: https://www.qut.edu.au/about/our-people/academic-profiles/helen.wallace
Supervision
HDR current supervisions
- Assessing Faunal Responses to Land-Use Change in a Tropical Rainforest Using Acoustic Methods
PhD, Principal Supervisor
Other supervisors: Dr Elektra Grant, Professor Susan Fuller - Development of Molecular Tools to Improve and Accelerate Macadamia Breeding
PhD, Associate Supervisor
Other supervisors: Associate Professor Brett Williams, Dr Stephanie Kerr, Professor Peter Prentis - Ecosystem functioning in tropical forests in response to logging
PhD, Principal Supervisor
Other supervisors: Dr Elektra Grant
The supervisions listed above are only a selection.