Dr Pang grew up in China, and obtained her PhD degree from the University of Tasmania in 2006. Her journey in academia began at the School of Plant Biology, where she served as a Research Associate from 2007 to 2010. Subsequently, she continued her academic pursuits as a post-doctoral fellow at CSIRO on an industry-funded project to enhance nitrogen-use efficiency in wheat from 2010 to 2013. She has been working at UWA since 2013 and currently as a Senior Research Fellow. With an impressive 16 years of experience in the field of plant abiotic stress and plant nutrition, Dr. Pang has made significant contributions to advancing our understanding in these areas.

Her research has been instrumental in unveiling the intricate coordination of belowground traits and its implications on phosphorus-acquisition strategies across various crop species including wheat, barley, perennial pasture legumes, and grain legumes such as chickpea, soybean, and peanut. In addition, she has identified key genetic markers for chickpea drought tolerance. By integrating GWAS results into genomic selection models, she has notably enhanced the prediction accuracy of yield traits, thus aiding in the development of drought-tolerant crops. Dr. Pang's scholarly contributions are evident in her extensive publication record, comprising 87 ISI-listed journal articles, including three highly cited ones, along with three book chapters.

Dr Pang serves as a section editor for prestigious journals such as Plant and Soil, Plant Growth Regulation, in addition to her role as a review editor for Frontiers in Plant Science.

Dr Pang actively mentors the next generation of scientists, currently supervising 10 PhD students. She has hosted 34 visiting scientists and visiting PhD students from eight different countries. 

Dr Pang has secured $1.88M through three Category 1 grants.

Tightening the phosphorus cycle for grain legumes (ARC Linkage LP200100341)

Using unique core collections of chickpea, soybean and peanut with diverse genetic backgrounds, this project aims to unravel the mechanisms underlying high phosphorus-use efficiency (PUE) at morphological, physiological, biochemical and molecular levels in three major legume crops. Reduced levels of phosphorus and phytate in seeds will improve seed quality for humans and livestock and dramatically reduce phosphorus-fertiliser inputs. The identification of traits and genes associated with high PUE will allow transfer of key traits into commercial
cultivars using molecular breeding approaches. Cultivars with improved PUE will enable reduced phosphate fertiliser input and loss of phosphate in runoff from agricultural systems.

barley

wheat

drought stress

grain legumes

hydraulic redistribution

perennial legumes

phosphorus-use efficiency

plant nutrition

salinity

waterlogging