Dr Steve Marcroft

Steve has been working on diseases of canola for the past 25 years and has developed many of the cultural practices currently used in Australia to minimise the impact of blackleg. Steve leads the field-based components of the research carried out by Marcroft Grains Pathology in collaboration with the University of Melbourne.  

Dr Elizabeth “Biz” Sheedy 

Biz has been with the team since 2017 and has a background in researching populations of beneficial fungi in forests. Biz manages the blackleg ratings project and the blackleg management guide.  

Alistair Smith 

Alistair is the operations manager within the Marcroft Grains Pathology team. Alistair has been working on fungal and bacterial diseases of Australian grain crops since 2008. Alistair joined the team in 2016 and works across all the various projects.  

Catherine “Buffy” Harrison

Buffy is our glasshouse manager and has been with the team for too long to mention! Buffy is responsible for the day to day running of the glasshouse and the associated experiments.  

Nick “Grug” Perndt 

Grug joined us in 2018 and is a technical officer within the team. Grug provides a support role across many of the aspects of research that we do.

Thea Jane – Thea is our communication manager i.e. she is responsible for this website and other media we create.