Rate My Professor Richard Flavel

Associate Professor Richard Flavel is Associate Professor of Crop Science in the School of Environmental and Rural Science within the Faculty of Science, Agriculture, Business and Law at the University of New England. He completed a Bachelor of Rural Science with Honours (BRurSc Hons) at UNE in 2008, specializing in plant nutrition and exploring the availability of sulfur from novel fertilizer sources under field conditions. After graduation, he worked as a broadacre commercial agronomist based in Narrabri, northern New South Wales, before returning to UNE to undertake a PhD titled “Visualising and quantifying cereal root responses to phosphorus.” He then served as a Research Fellow in plant-soil interactions for the Cooperative Research Centre for Polymers, studying non-wetting soils and the interactions between wheat root systems, soil physical structure, and functionalized polymers capable of moderating soil moisture dynamics. In this capacity, his work examined root-soil interface dynamics relevant to crop productivity.

In his current role as Crop Lecturer, Flavel's research focuses on soil physico-chemical interactions at the root-soil interface and their implications for crop and plant productivity. His interests include crop agronomy and plant nutrition, root system architecture, and soil-plant interactions involving physics and chemistry, utilizing X-ray computed tomography and X-ray fluorescence. Key publications encompass “Non-destructive quantification of cereal roots in soil using high-resolution X-ray tomography” (Journal of Experimental Botany, 2012), “Applications of X-ray computed tomography for examining the soil physical environment: A review” (European Journal of Soil Science, 2013), “Quantifying the response of wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) root system architecture to phosphorus in an Oxisol” (Plant and Soil, 2014), “Oil mallee biochar improves soil structural properties – a study with x-ray micro-CT” (Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment, 2014), “Growth and phosphorus uptake of faba bean and cotton are related to Colwell-P concentrations in the subsoil of Vertosols” (Crop and Pasture Science, 2014), and more recent contributions such as “Impact of Fusarium Crown Rot on Root System Area and Links to Genetic Variation within Commercial Wheat Varieties” (2023), “Preferential Phosphorus Placement Improves the Productivity and Competitiveness of Tropical Pasture Legumes” (2024), and “Taking shortcuts: lowering harvest height to restrict colonisation of cereal stubble by Fusarium pseudograminearum” (2025). He has authored 78 publications garnering over 1,280 citations.