Emilio Villar Alegria, M.Sc.

My Australian academic adventure had two main parts: first, I attended the World Wheat Congress in Perth, a biannual conference for researchers and private companies in the wheat field. Then, I visited Queensland University to meet researchers using techniques I needed to learn.

The conference kicked off with small workshops the day before the main event. These workshops weren’t just really informative from a research perspective—they were also a great chance to meet colleagues in a more relaxed and less hectic setting than the main conference days. The event itself included four days of talks and poster presentations and finished with a day of field visits to wheat-growing areas in Western Australia.

The quality of the presentations in the conference was outstanding. I really admired how some speakers managed to explain very detailed research to an audience that wasn’t necessarily expert in their specific field while still keeping everyone engaged. As a plant physiologist, I picked up a lot of insights—not just in my area but also in wheat genetics, agronomic advances, postharvest processing, and more. On top of that, there was strong participation from international research organizations, like CYMMT, and breeding companies, which gave the event a broader perspective. It was refreshing to see the focus on real-world applications, something that’s often missing in purely academic discussions.

Something that really struck me was the human side of the congress. It felt very global and inclusive—far from the usual “Eurocentric” lens we often experience in local conferences. There was so much diversity in accents, skin tones, personal backgrounds, and career levels, yet everyone shared a common goal of learning and sharing knowledge.

After the congress, I took some time to explore the area around Perth and discovered a landscape completely different from Europe. On one hand, I got to see kangaroos, quokkas, arboreal ferns, eucalyptus forests, macadamia nut trees, and more, while on the other hand also visited huge farming systems with over 40k ha owned by just one farmer.

The second part of my trip was in Brisbane, on the other side of Australia. The weather was very tropical there, and the city felt like a garden full of blooming jacarandas, wild jasmine, and bougainvilleas. The University of Queensland is a modern campus by the river, and many students daily arrive by ferry, which felt pretty special. I spent the week with my supervisor meeting researchers who work on wheat branching or cereal modeling. Their techniques are very relevant to my PhD, where I’m trying to model how plants adapt photosynthesis to environmental changes. Measuring this directly is very time-consuming, but I learned how to estimate it quickly and reliably by measuring leaf reflectance. In exchange, I helped them to improve their technique to phenotype stomatal traits, which I have done extensively in Berlin but they were starting to develop it. 

Another highlight was how welcoming the researchers were—even some of the really well-known ones. They were extremely friendly, spent a lot of time chatting with us about more than just work, and even showed us around the university and told us what it’s like to work there. Sometimes, I have felt intimidated about contacting potential colleagues, but this trip was a great reminder that even renowned researchers are also just regular, approachable people.

Overall, the trip was an amazing opportunity to learn new things, meet inspiring people, and build useful connections for my PhD and future. It was also a fantastic chance to explore such a faraway part of the world. I’d definitely recommend other students to take the leap and go for experiences like this—it is totally worth it and might not be possible later. Finally, I am especially grateful to the IZ LIST Travel Grant Committee for their financial support, which allowed me to fully focus on making the most out of the trip and develop as a researcher.