Dr Kai Voss-Fels

Honorary Principal Fellow

Centre for Crop Science
Queensland Alliance for Agriculture and Food Innovation

Overview

Dr Kai Voss-Fels is a Senior Research Fellow within the Queensland Alliance for Agriculture and Food Innovation at The University of Queensland focussing on quantitative genetics and plant breeding. Before joining UQ in 2017, Kai has worked as Research Associate at the Karlsruhe Institute for Technology and as PhD student and then Postdoc at the Justus Liebig University Giessen in Germany, where he completed his PhD in 2016 with highest distinction (summa cum laude, JLU best dissertation award).

Kai is interested in developing and implementing new genomics-assisted breeding approaches to improve yield, quality and resistances in major crops, such as wheat, barley, sugarcane, rapeseed and chickpea. A particular focus of his research involves the integration of quantitative genetics, genomics and computational approaches to develop new crop improvement strategies. He is particularly interested in new genomic prediction approaches, e.g. involving artificial intelligence and computer simulation, that could help to accelerate the rate of genetic gain. This also includes the study of GxE interaction and non-additive genetic effects, which represent a key challenge for crop genetic improvement programs.

Kai has won several prestigious awards, e.g. the Kurt von Rümker Price 2017 and the 2019 Barley Incentive Award by the Australian Barley Technical Symposium committee. He has published his research outcomes in high impact peer-reviewed journals, such as Nature Plants and Trends in Plant Science, and he works closely with leading national and international partners across the public and private sectors.

Research Interests

  • Quantitative Genetics
  • Genomics
  • Plant breeding
  • Agricultural Science

Qualifications

  • Doctor of Philosophy, Justus Liebig Universität Giessen

Publications

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Grants

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Supervision

  • Doctor Philosophy

  • Doctor Philosophy

  • (2023) Doctor Philosophy

View all Supervision

Publications

Book Chapter

  • Alahmad, Samir, Rambla, Charlotte, Voss-Fels, Kai P. and Hickey, Lee T. (2022). Accelerating breeding cycles. Wheat improvement. (pp. 557-571) Cham, Switzerland: Springer International Publishing. doi: 10.1007/978-3-030-90673-3_30

  • Voss-Fels, Kai P., Herzog, Eva, Dreisigacker, Susanne, Sukumaran, Sivakumar, Watson, Amy, Frisch, Matthias, Hayes, Ben and Hickey, Lee T. (2019). “SpeedGS” to accelerate genetic gain in spring wheat. Applications of genetic and genomic research in cereals. (pp. 303-327) edited by Thomas Miedaner and Viktor Korzun. Amsterdam, Netherlands: Elsevier. doi: 10.1016/b978-0-08-102163-7.00014-4

Journal Article

Conference Publication

  • Akinlade, Oluwaseun, Voss-Fels, Kai, Dinglasan, Eric, Robinson, Hannah, Smith, Millicent, Varshney, Rajeev and Hickey, Lee (2022). Haplotype-based GWAS and genomic prediction as a path to increase genetic gain in chickpea. TropAg International Agriculture Conference, Brisbane, QLD Australia, 31 October-2 November 2022.

  • Akinlade, Oluwaseun, Voss-Fels, Kai, Dinglasan, Eric, Robinson, Hannah, Smith, Millicent, Varshney, Rajeev and Hickey, Lee (2022). Evaluating genomic prediction models for key traits using a chickpea MAGIC population. Queensland Legume Symposium, Brisbane, QLD Australia, 22 July 2022.

  • Akinlade, Oluwaseun, Voss-Fels, Kai, Costilla, Roy, Kholova, Jana, Choudhary, Sunita, Varshney, Rajeev, Smith, Millicent and Hickey, Lee (2022). Predicting a path to increase genetic gain in chickpea. Australasian Plant Breeding Conference, Gold Coast, QLD Australia, 9-11 May 2022.

  • Van Haeften, Shanice, Kang, Yichen, Douglas, Colin, Potgieter, Andries, Voss-Fels, Kai, Hickey, Lee and Smith, Millicent (2021). Improving mungbean productivity. Australian Society of Plant Scientists Conference, Brisbane/Hybrid, 25 November 2021.

  • Copley, J.P., Engle, B.N., Speight, S., Fordyce, G., Ross, E.M., Voss-Fels, K.P. and Hayes, B.J. (2021). Assessing the relationship between beef cattle fertility traits and novel environmental descriptors in northern Australia. 24th Association for the Advancement of Animal Breeding and Genetics Conference, Online, 2-4 November 2021. Armidale, NSW Australia: Association for the Advancement of Animal Breeding and Genetics.

  • Van Haeften, Shanice, Kang, Yichen, Douglas, Colin, Potgieter, Andries, Voss-Fels, Kai, Hickey, Lee and Smith, Millicent (2021). Exploring variation in key traits to improve mungbean productivity. Bean Improvement Co-operative & North American Pulse Improvement Association Biennial Meeting, Virtual, 2-3 November 2021.

  • Voss-Fels, Kai, Powell, Owen, Jordan, David, Hammer, Graeme, Barbier, Francois, Werner, Christian, Hayes, Ben, Beveridge, Christine and Cooper, Mark (2020). The impact of physiological non-additivity on variance components for complex traits. The 6th International Conference on Quantitative Genetics, Brisbane, QLD Australia, 3-13 November 2020.

  • Amin, Asad, Christopher, Jack, Ababaei, Behnam, Cooper, Mark, Hayes, Ben, Voss-Fels, Kai, Hickey, Lee and Chenu, Karine (2019). Environmental characterization facilitate G × E interaction to highlight the role of stay-green traits for genetic gain. Translational Photosynthesis Conference: Innovations in Agriculture for Food Security (ASPS 2019), Brisbane, QLD, Australia, 30 June - 3 July 2019.

Other Outputs

Grants (Administered at UQ)

PhD and MPhil Supervision

Current Supervision

Completed Supervision