Megan Outram, from New Zealand, is a postdoctoral researcher at the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation, Australia with Peter Dodds and Melania Figueroa. She focuses on developing molecular understanding of the interactions between rust fungi and wheat through structural biology and protein biochemistry. Recently, she adopted new artificial intelligence technologies in her work to facilitate structural analysis on a genome-wide scale for the purpose of exploiting structural conservation to engineer novel, durable genetic resistance in wheat and ensure effective utilization of current resistance. Megan earned her B.Sc. (First Class Honours) in plant pathology from Lincoln University in New Zealand, after immigrating from South Africa. She subsequently moved to Australia to undertake her PhD at the University of Queensland, under the supervision of Bostjan Kobe, Simon Williams, and Peter Solomon. Prior to her current position, she worked as a postdoctoral researcher in plant structural immunology with Simon Williams at the Australian National University.

Education:

• B.Sc. (First Class Honours) – Lincoln University, New Zealand
• Ph.D. – University of Queensland, Australia