Rate My Professor Bec Swift

Dr. Bec Swift is a Lecturer in the School of Molecular and Life Sciences within the Faculty of Science and Engineering at Curtin University, Perth, Western Australia. She has held this position since 28 January 2020. Swift earned her PhD from Murdoch University, with her doctoral research involving investigations of plant microbiomes that extended to fieldwork on Christmas Island. Her academic profile is marked by expertise in agriculture, microbiology, plant probiotics, and soil science, as indicated on her Google Scholar profile.

Swift's research centers on plant pathology, with a focus on biological control of soil-borne pathogens, particularly Sclerotinia sclerotiorum, which impacts crops such as canola. She contributes to the Centre for Crop and Disease Management at Curtin University and participates in Grains Research and Development Corporation projects exploring ice nucleation bacteria in wheat, soil suppressiveness, and sustainable disease management. Key publications include 'Effective, Consistent, and Rapid Noncontact Application Methods for Inoculum of Sclerotinia sclerotiorum' (Plant Disease, 2024, with V.-C. Han et al.); 'Biological control of Sclerotinia sclerotiorum: Modes of action of bacterial biological control agents' (Biological Control, 2023); 'Antagonistic microbiota drive soil suppressiveness against Sclerotinia sclerotiorum, a widespread soil-borne fungal plant pathogen' (Applied Soil Ecology, 2025); 'Complete Genome Sequence of the Ice-Nucleation-Active Pseudomonas syringae pv. syringae Strain INB C3 from Wheat' (Microbiology Resource Announcements, 2023, with S. Jackson et al.); and 'Carpogenic Germinability of Diverse Sclerotinia sclerotiorum Isolates from Canola' (Plant Disease, 2020, with P.J. Michael et al.). Swift also co-authored work on elemental composition and phosphorus dissolution of steel slag waste for agricultural potential (2026). She teaches courses such as AGRI1000 Land and Water Resources and is involved with the Australasian Plant Pathology Society.