Pr. Steven UNDERHILL

Professor Steven Underhill has 35 years of research experience in subtropical and tropical horticulture with a focus on food loss, poverty alleviation and livelihood development outcomes. Prof Underhill is currently the Director of the Australian Centre for Pacific Islands Research (ACPIR) and is an international expert in Pacific food systems. Prof Underhill also holds adjunct Professorial appointments with the Solomon Islands National University (Solomon Islands); Fiji National University, (Fiji); The University of Queensland (Australia); and is a Research Fellow with the Scientific Research Organisation of Samoa.

Prof Underhill has published more than 80 academic research and conference publications in the field of food security, and has been awarded more than AUD$20M in competitive international research grants in the last ten years. Prof Underhill currently leads several large Australian-Government-funded and UN FAO-funded projects in the South Pacific region on horticultural food systems, inter-island supply chain logistics, food loss, agribusiness and Pacific university capacity building.

Prof Underhill’s current research interests involve nutritionally sensitive horticultural food systems and food loss in the South Pacific, where he is working with smallholder farmers and local government agencies to improve their postharvest handling and quality management supply systems, food marketing and distribution systems, and institutional capacity building.