Rate My Professor Harvey Millar

Professor Harvey Millar is a Professor in the School of Molecular Sciences, Faculty of Science, at the University of Western Australia, where he also serves as Director of the ARC Centre of Excellence in Plant Energy Biology and holds an ARC Australian Laureate Fellowship. He earned a BSc (Hons) and a PhD in plant biochemistry and molecular biology from the Australian National University in 1997. His postdoctoral research was conducted at the University of Oxford as an HFSP Fellow. Since joining UWA, Millar has held successive Australian Research Council fellowships, including ARC Australian Postdoctoral Fellowship (2000-2002), ARC Queen Elizabeth II Fellowship (2002-2007), ARC Australian Professorial Fellowship (2008-2011), ARC Future Fellowship (2012-2015), and ARC Laureate Fellowship (2021-present). He is also a Chief Investigator in the ARC Centre of Excellence in Plants for Space and Research Node Leader and Board Member at the International Space Centre.

Millar's research specializations encompass mitochondrial function in plants, central metabolism, protein turnover and proteomics in Arabidopsis, wheat, and barley, energy efficiency of plants in harsh environments, oxidative stress and antioxidant defenses, respiration, and biogenesis of mitochondria during plant development. Current projects include targeted proteomics in cereals, protein profiles in response to development and environment, nitrogen use efficiency, measurement of protein aging, protein complex assembly, and mitochondrial function under stress. He serves on the Editorial Board of The Plant Cell. Major awards include Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science (2020), Premier of Western Australia's Scientist of the Year (2017), Charles Albert Shull Award (2015), Fenner Medal (2012), and Australian Life Scientist of the Year (2005). Key publications feature 'Organization and regulation of mitochondrial respiration in plants' (2011), 'Experimental analysis of the Arabidopsis mitochondrial proteome highlights signaling and regulatory components, provides assessment of targeting prediction programs' (2004), 'The impact of oxidative stress on Arabidopsis mitochondria' (2002), 'Analysis of the Arabidopsis mitochondrial proteome' (2001), and recent articles such as 'Metabolic Responses to Salinity Identify a Role for Mitochondrial 2-Oxoglutarate Dehydrogenase in Wheat Tissue Tolerance' (2026) and 'Turbocharging fundamental science translation through controlled environment agriculture' (2026).