Dr Timothy Ghaly is a microbial ecologist in the School of Natural Sciences. Timothy obtained his PhD from Macquarie University in 2022 for research in microbial genetics and adaptation. Following this, he worked as a postdoctoral researcher investigating the ecology of environmental microbiomes using metagenomics. He then secured the highly competitive Macquarie University Research Fellowship (~8% success rate). As part of his fellowship, he combines a variety of experimental and computational methods to investigate how soil microbiomes and their ecological functions respond to agricultural land degradation and restoration – and how these microbial shifts contribute to plant health and drought tolerance. Building on these insights, his current research aims to engineer microbial communities to enhance plant growth, climate resilience, and sustainable agriculture.