Amelia Henry

Amelia Henry's research supports abiotic stress trait development at IRRI. Her group conducts physiology experiments on rice with aims to identify new accessions for stress tolerance and to characterize variation in the breeding pool. Research topics include drought, salinity heat, direct seeding, lodging, and ratooning, with an emphasis on characterizing rice roots. Dr. Henry works closely with national partners to characterize stress-prone environments and build capacity for stress screening. She is currently the unit leader of the “Traits for Challenged Environments” unit in IRRI’s Rice Breeding Innovations Department. Their aim is to link upstream research with breeding through the Trait Development Pipeline.

Amelia joined IRRI as a Postdoctoral Fellow - Drought Physiology in 2008. Prior to her being the Research Unit Leader for Traits for Challenged Environments, she was Scientist I (2011–2013), Scientist II (2014–2016), and Senior Scientist I (2017–2020). She serves as an Adjunct Professor at the University of the Philippines Los Baños since 2018.

Amelia holds a PhD in Plant Biology from the Pennsylvania State University, USA. She obtained her MS and BSc (Distinction in Research) degrees in Plant Science from Utah State University, USA and Cornell University, USA, respectively.