A/Prof Rhiannon Schilling is an agricultural scientist. She has delivered more than $30 M of research projects as a lead CI focused on improving crop and soil management throughout the low, medium and high rainfall zones of SA.

Between 2020-2025, she was the Program Leader of Agronomy at the South Australian Research and Development Institute (SARDI) overseeing a large research team (50+ staff). She was a Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Adelaide between 2014-2016 where she focused on improving crop production in saline and sodic soils. She completed a PhD in Plant Science in 2014, a Bachelor of Science (Honours, First Class) in 2010 and a Bachelor of Science (Agricultural Science) in 2007-2009 at the University of Adelaide.

A/Prof Schilling led the South Australian Climate Resilience Discovery Farms and Innovator Sites long term trial program (SA Discovery Farms, $8M) with Flinders University, SARDI and over 40 industry partners. She also founded the South Australian Drought Resilience Adoption and Innovation Hub (SA Drought Hub, $19.47 M, 60 partners) and was Deputy Director of the SA Drought Hub between 2021-2024. 

A/Prof Schilling works closely with all major farming system groups, industry stakeholders and regional communities to deliver agronomic management practice changes to advance farming systems. She has supervised 9 PhD, Masters and Honours students and has published 42 research articles for industry and 19 peer-reviewed scientific articles with over 943 citations (IF to 11.39).

A/Prof Schilling is the recipient of fourteen academic awards including the AIPS SA Young Tall Poppy award, the Edith Dornwell Medal, KP Barley Prize, The Max Tate Prize, E.J. and E.I Graham Prize, Mark Paul Bowker Memorial Prize, and the University of Adelaide’s Vice Chancellor’s Award for Outstanding Excellence in Early Career Research.

A/Prof Schilling is an ex-officio board member of the Agricultural Bureau of South Australia, a member of the Ag Institute Australia (AIA) – SA committee and AIR EP Low Rainfall committee, and a member of the South Australian Barley Advisory Committee (SABAC).

PhD

2023 - 2025: Yiting Xie: Rapid and economic flowering prediction method by machine vision for wheat and canola

2021 - 2024:  Enqi Wu: Use of remote sensing to assess and manage phosphorus fertiliser application to reduce crop variability (including a PIRSA AgTech scholarship) (principal supervisor)

2020 - 2023:  Ruby Hume: Innovative techniques for improving lime efficiency in acid soils

2018 - 2021: Muhammad Khairul Hisyam Ahmad Sohaimi: Improving yield stability with energy efficient root solute transport traits

2015 - 2020:  Chana Borjigin: Identification of salinity tolerance genes in Mocho de Espiga Branca.

2014 - 2018:  Daniel Menadue: Identification and characterisation of H⁺-pyrophosphatase genes in bread wheat. Awarded a Dean’s Commendation for Doctoral Thesis Excellence.

Masters

2018: Leighlan Doe: Evaluating the role of H+-pyrophosphatases in wheat

Honours

2018: Dillon Campbell: Effects of image overlap and resolution of UAV-collected imagery on digital surface model accuracy in wheat breeding field trials

2018: Ellen de Vries: The value of ALMT1 to wheat growth under high pH and high Al