Dr Penny Wurm is an applied ecologist with a research background in wetland and invasive species ecology. Applied ecology projects have led to a research practice that integrates ecology and livelihoods, including in agricultural settings in Indonesia and Timor-Leste and native plant food enterprises in northern Australia.
Penny is currently working with CDU colleague Dr Sean Bellairs on the commercialisation of Australian native rice with an Aboriginal enterprise, the NT Department of Industry, Tourism and Trade, and Queensland University of Technology, through the Future Food Systems CRC.
For more information on this work see the project website at https://www.cdu.edu.au/riel/research/australian-native-rice-commercialisation. She has recently collaborated on a number of publications regarding the commercial harvest of Kakadu plum in the NT, reporting on work led by her colleague Dr Julian Gorman.
Penny is passionate about teaching. She teaches the Master of Environmental Management and has won a number national teaching awards. She is currently supervising PhD projects based in northern Australia, Timor-Leste and Tanzania.