Scientists.
Industrialists.
Venture builders.
World-class plant biologist. Visionary behind our science. As an academic, Cara has 16+ years’ experience decoding how plants grow and perform under pressure, with breakthrough results published in Nature, Plant Physiology, and Nature Biotechnology. As our CTO, she leads a multidisciplinary team of internal scientists, academic and industry collaborators and contractors to translate her science into game-changing biostimulants.
Cara works at the intersection of academic discovery and real-world agriculture. In addition to her scientific leadership and entrepreneurial role, Cara is a vocal advocate for women in STEM and serves on national and international grant review panels. She is a sought-after speaker on topics including plant biology, crop biostimulants, and sustainable agriculture.
Cara’s academic career spans more than 16 years, and she is recognised as a leading expert in source-sink balance and resilience in plants. She holds a BSc (Honours) in Biotechnology from Victoria University in her native Australia. She earned her PhD in Molecular Biology from Monash University, where her research focused on the genetic and biochemical mechanisms that underpin extreme drought and desiccation tolerance in African grasses. In 2014, she joined Rothamsted Research in the UK as a postdoctoral scientist, researching how source-sink balance in plants is affected by carbon allocation, and its interplay with drought stress. During this time, she worked on the platform technology that later became the foundation for SugaROx.
In 2021, Cara co-founded SugaROx alongside two academic colleagues to bring that platform technology out of the lab and into the hands of farmers. As CTO of our venture, she shapes our technology roadmap and R&D strategy. She manages the work of our internal team of plant biologists and organic chemists as well as contractors offering specialist scientific services such as toxicology tests, field trials and carbon footprinting. Cara also collaborates with academic and industrial organisations to ensure every molecule developed by us delivers measurable value to farmers while supporting a more sustainable global food system.
Cara’s academic career spans more than 16 years, and she is recognised as a leading expert in source-sink balance and resilience in plants. She holds a BSc (Honours) in Biotechnology from Victoria University in her native Australia. She earned her PhD in Molecular Biology from Monash University, where her research focused on the genetic and biochemical mechanisms that underpin extreme drought and desiccation tolerance in African grasses. In 2014, she joined Rothamsted Research in the UK as a postdoctoral scientist, researching how source-sink balance in plants is affected by carbon allocation, and its interplay with drought stress. During this time, she worked on the platform technology that later became the foundation for SugaROx.
In 2021, Cara co-founded SugaROx alongside two academic colleagues to bring that platform technology out of the lab and into the hands of farmers. As CTO of our venture, she shapes our technology roadmap and R&D strategy. She manages the work of our internal team of plant biologists and organic chemists as well as contractors offering specialist scientific services such as toxicology tests, field trials and carbon footprinting. Cara also collaborates with academic and industrial organisations to ensure every molecule developed by us delivers measurable value to farmers while supporting a more sustainable global food system.
