Rate My Professor Dorin Gupta

Associate Professor Dorin Gupta is a distinguished crop scientist and educator serving as Group Leader of the Sustainable Agricultural Production research group in the School of Agriculture, Food and Ecosystem Sciences at the University of Melbourne's Dookie Campus. With almost two decades of academic experience spanning India and Australia, she joined the University of Melbourne in 2013 as a Senior Lecturer in Sustainable Agriculture before advancing to her current Associate Professor role. Gupta coordinates the Food Sustainability and Crop Production specialisation within the Master of Agriculture degree and teaches undergraduate and postgraduate subjects focused on food production and technology. She has successfully supervised over 50 master's students, 7 PhD candidates, 2 honours students, and 2 others. Holding the prestigious Vavilov Frankel Fellowship, her career includes receipt of the FVAS Academic Travel Award in 2020, awards for exploring the potential of kangaroo grass and resource-efficient hydroponic microgreens-sensor based systems in 2018, and multiple FVAS equipment and engagement grants in 2015 and 2016.

Gupta's research centres on enhancing sustainability, efficiency, and stress resilience in staple and native crops, integrating agronomy, pathology, genetics, and genomics. Her work addresses climate-change-resilient food systems, biodiversity conservation in agricultural landscapes, resource optimisation, crop genetics improvement via breeding and wild relatives, and management of biotic stresses like legume fungal diseases and abiotic stresses such as drought and heat. Key contributions include silicon-mediated stress tolerance, conservation agriculture practices, diversified crop production systems incorporating legumes, dual-purpose and native crops, and applications of sensor technologies and molecular techniques. Notable publications encompass 'Novel insights into the mechanism(s) of silicon-induced drought stress tolerance in lentil plants revealed by RNA sequencing analysis' (2023), 'Regulatory role of silicon on photosynthesis, gas-exchange and yield related traits of drought-stressed lentil under controlled and field conditions' (2023), 'Silicon improves root system and canopy physiology in wheat under drought stress' (2023), 'Exploitation of lentil wild relatives for genetic improvement' (2024), and 'Paddock-scale evaluation of dual-purpose wheat for grain yield and sheep live weight gain in South-East Australia' (2024). Through national and international collaborations, Gupta advances innovative solutions for sustainable intensification of crop production, bolstering productivity and ecosystem health.