Montana Hickey

Montana is a diagnostic plant pathologist working in biosecurity with the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry in Sydney, NSW. Prior to joining the department in 2021, her undergraduate studies in plant science at the University of Queensland and an internship with the University of Minnesota (St Paul) focussed on avocado and small grain crop pathology. During 2019 and 2020, she led the UQ Student Association of Plant Science as President, and in 2022, Montana was awarded the UQ Faculty of Science Future Superstar Award for Honours and Postgraduate Study. Her work has also taken her internationally, having just returned from completing volunteer work in Lao PDR, where she undertook a survey of fungal foliar diseases in common crops, with the support of the Crawford Fund.