Ritika Chowdhary, from India, is a plant physiologist and biotechnologist pursuing her PhD at the University of Sydney where she is an ACIAR, JAF PhD scholar, under the supervision of Richard Richards and Greg Rebetzke, of the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO) and Prof. Richard Trethowan, University of Sydney, with the help of Dr. Ravish Chatrath, Dr. Sai Parshad and Dr. Satish Mishra. Ritika is keenly interested in plant physiology and its integration with breeding and biotechnology and would like to explore this interaction at a practical level.