dr. RM (Rachael) Wood

Rachael is an Australian agricultural researcher with experience in the nutritional management of annual and perennial crops. Her research focuses on understanding how growing conditions and postharvest handling affect product quality, combining field-based research with non-destructive sensing and analytical techniques. She completed her PhD in Australia in 2019 on the impact of crop management on rice grain quality. She has previously worked in Germany examining the effects of crop management and postharvest storage technologies on pome fruit quality, and in the Netherlands, working on a project investigating the potential use of X-ray computed tomography to detect internal disorders in pome fruit after storage. Rachael is particularly interested in connecting crop management practices with measurable improvements in food quality and sustainability. Currently, she is responsible for analysing data from the core trials of the CocoaSoils programme.