Since July 2002, Len has been GRDC Chair in Crop Agronomy at the University of Western Australia (UWA). From 1993, Len was Agronomist/Physiologist and Consortium Coordinator for Rainfed-Lowland and Flood-Prone Ecosystems in South and Southeast Asia, while based at the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) in the Philippines. Before that, he was Agronomist/Senior Agronomist/Principal Agronomist with the Queensland Department of Primary Industries for 18 years, based mainly at Emerald in Central Queensland.
Len has substantial research experience in three major cropping systems: rainfed wheat-based systems in Mediterranean environments, rainfed rice-based systems in the subhumid tropics, and rainfed sorghum-based systems in the semi-arid tropics. His qualifications include a B. Agr. Sc. (Hons) from the University of Queensland in 1974, a Ph.D. from the University of Western Australia in 1988, and Research Fellowships to ICRISAT in India in 1980 and Texas A&M University in the USA in 1989-1990.
Len has more than 100 refereed publications and is on the Editorial Boards of Field Crops Research, Plant Production Science, and Plant and Soil. He is enjoying the new challenges at UWA of lecturing to undergraduate students and chasing research funds. He has been married to Ruth for nearly 20 years, and they are enjoying Perth. Western Australia is a great place with Mediterranean crops and pastures, lovely wines, great seafood, beaches, wildflowers, forests, and rugged national parks. Len is sure everyone will enjoy the Australian Agronomy Conference in Western Australia in 2006!!
Dr Bill Bellotti
Vice President
Bill is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Agriculture, Food and Wine at the University of Adelaide. Prior to joining the University in 1994, Bill was with the South Australian Research & Development Institute at Turretfield and the NSW Department of Agriculture at Walgett. He completed a Bachelor of Science (Honours) in the School of Australian Environmental Studies at Griffith University before undertaking his Doctorate at the University of New England.
Bill’s research has focussed on the integration of pastures into cropping systems, and this interest has led him into soil water, soil nitrogen, climate variability and change, and agricultural production system simulation. Bill has studied these topics under rainfed agricultural systems in southern Australia and western China
As Vice President, Bill acknowledges the challenges and opportunities of hosting the 2008 Australian Agronomy Conference in Adelaide. Our aim will be to provide a challenging and stimulating conference for Australian and international agricultural scientists in these times of great change and uncertainty.
Dr Darshan Sharma
Secretary
Darshan is a Research Officer (Wheat Agronomy) at the Centre for Cropping Systems, Department of Agriculture, Western Australia. His current R & D work is aimed at promoting adaptation of new wheat varieties in the Central Agricultural Region of WA and a state-wide leading role in issues on small grain screenings. Before joining the department in 1998, Darshan worked as a Senior Scientist (Tea Breeding) in the Council of Scientific Industrial Research, India and as a Wheat Breeder in the Himachal Pradesh Agricultural University in India. Darshan has got a Master’s and a Ph.D. in Genetics from Punjab Agricultural University, India in 1986.
His published research work includes papers on time of sowing, plant population, small grain screenings, seed vigour, multiple disease resistance, genetics of leaf- and stripe-rust resistance and adaptation breeding while germplasm development efforts include disease resistant high yielding wheat varieties and prolonged flushing clones of tea.
Dr Peter White
Treasurer
Peter (BSc. Agric. (Hons 1st Class), PhD) is Senior Research Officer and Project Manager for Lupin Agronomy at the Department of Agriculture, Western Australia (DAWA). Key responsibilities and research interest include characterising environments for grain legume production in WA and managing agronomic research for lupins. After graduating from the University of Western Australia in 1988, Peter spent three years at the International Centre for Agricultural Research in Dry Areas (ICARDA) in Syria, as a Postdoctoral Fellow conducting research on N cycling in pasture, wheat and pulse crops. Following this he joined the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) and was posted to their project in Phnom Penh. Achievements during this period include the development of the Cambodian Agronomic Soil Classification, national fertiliser recommendations for rice production and other integrated nutrient management solutions. After his stint at IRRI, Peter joined the DAWA in 1999.
Dr Bill Porter
Treasurer (Up to 20 March 2006)
Bill (B Sc Agric Hons, PhD) is Director of Agricultural Systems Research with the Department of Agriculture Western Australia. His disciplinary expertise is in soil management, having focused most strongly on soil acidity management. During the 1980s and 90s he made a significant contribution to the theoretical understanding of the mechanisms of soil acidification, and led the WA research and extension team which guided WA’s broadacre agricultural industries to adopt lime application as a routine part of production systems. More recently Bill has led projects on low recharge cropping systems and now on nutrient management in the grains industry. He has been based in the WA’s wheatbelt for most of his professional life (Merredin 9 years then Northam 12 years). Bill has now moved back to the city where he and his wife Caroline enjoy the lifestyle of the port of Fremantle – a place that is an enticement for their two adult daughters to visit often!
Professor Kadambot Siddique
Deputy President
Prof. Siddique holds a Bachelor of Agriculture (BSc Ag) with 1 st class honours from Kerala Agricultural University, a Masters in Crop Physiology from the Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi and a Ph.D. in Environmental and Crop Physiology from the University of Western Australia.
Prof. Siddique has more than 24 years of experience in crop physiology, production agronomy, germplasm enhancement, breeding and industry development of pulse and cereal crops in Australian and overseas and recognised internationally as a leader in this field. Prof. Siddique has contributed to the establishment and expansion of the pulse industries in Australia over many years. In addition to his research on crop adaptation and production agronomy of pulses and cereals Prof. Siddique has developed and commercially released several chickpea, lentil and lathyrus varieties that have superior yield, quality and disease resistance.
Dr Jairo A Palta
Chair Program Committee
Jairo is Principal Research Scientist in CSIRO Plant Industry based at the Centre for Environment and Life Sciences, in Perth, Western Australia. He has a Ph.D in Crop Physiology from LaTrobe University in Melbourne, Australia and a B.sc in Plant Biology from Universidad del Valle in Cali, Colombia and a M.sc in Ecological Plant Physiology from CINVESTAV in Mexico. He has worked with the Rockefeller Foundation’s program on rural development in Colombia, with CIAT in Cali, Colombia, with the University of North Wales in Bangor, UK, with the Laboratory of Biomedical and Environmental Sciences at UCLA in Los Angeles, USA.
Jairo Palta’s research has been concerned with crop water relations, carbon and nitrogen interactions, source-sink relations and the physiology and genetics of processes that result in improved yield and quality in environments limited by water and nitrogen. Jairo has worked with a wide range of crops, particularly cassava, sunflower, sugarbeet, rice, maize, wheat and lupins. He has published over 70 papers in referred journals and as book chapters and is the editor of one book.
Dr. Michael Walsh
Deputy Program
After completing his Ph.D. in Wyoming, Mike joined the Western Australian Herbicide Resistance Initiative at UWA as a weeds Agronomist in 1999. Prior to this, he had worked as a research agronomist with the Victorian Department of Agriculture at Rutherglen and Walpeup from 1986-1995. His research has focused on developing and evaluating techniques aimed at preventing weed seed inputs into the seed bank. He has also been investigating the types and extent of herbicide resistance in wild radish populations in Western Australia. In addition he has been investigating alternate weed control strategies for crop production systems.
Dr Jens Berger
Facilities and Social
Jens Berger (BSc Hons, MSc, PhD) is a Senior Research Officer at CLIMA, based at CSIRO Plant Industry in Perth. He has 12 years experience in investigating adaptation in pulses to different environments in Australia, the Middle East and the Indian subcontinent, and is particularly interested in using an applied ecological approach, where plant adaptation is examined in the context of habitat of origin. Jens organized the social activities of the 12 th Australasian Plant Breeding Conference held in Perth in 2002, and is keen to extend a similar level of hospitality to facilitate friendly interaction among the delegates of the 13 th Agronomy Conference.
Mr Alan Meldrum
Deputy Facilities and Social
Alan Meldrum is the WA Pulse Development Officer for Pulse Australia. The role takes in all facets of pulse production and post-farmgate areas. This includes working closely with the pulse agronomy team from the Department of Agriculture to assist in the development of profitable pulse options for growers, maintaining close ties to the agribusiness network, and liaising with local exporters and handlers of pulses.
Another role is that of Executive Officer for Pulse WA. This group brings together representatives of the whole pulse supply chain to discuss issues and share information. A particular focus of Pulse WA in 2006 is the promotion of lupin production and value adding to maintain lupins as the primary grain legume in WA farming rotations.
In his past life, Alan was the manager of Merredin Research Station for the Department of Agriculture. He has a strong knowledge of broadacre grain production and agricultural research..
Dr Neil C. Turner FTSE, FAIAST
Co-Editor
Neil Turner is currently a Chief Research Scientist at CSIRO Plant Industry in Perth. In October 2005, he will retire from CSIRO after 31 years with the organization and continue with appointment as Adjunct Professor in the Centre for Legumes in Mediterranean Agriculture in the Faculty of Natural and Agricultural Sciences at the University of Western Australia. His research interests are in the adaptation of crops and trees to water-limited environments and he has worked with a wide range of species not only in Australia, but also in the USA, UK, Germany, The Philippines and India. He has also served on the Board of Trustees of the International Center for Research in Agroforestry.
Dr Tina Botwright Acuña
Co-Editor
Dr Tina Botwright Acuña completed her PhD in Agricultural Science at the University of Tasmania in 1997, and has held postdoctoral fellowships with CSIRO Plant Industry in Perth (1997 – 2001) and at the International Rice Institute in the Philippines (2001-2003), researching traits to improve yield of wheat and rice, respectively, in low rainfall environments. Since July 2003, Tina has worked as a Research Fellow at the University of Western Australia in the School of Plant Biology with Prof. Len Wade on hardpan penetration ability of wheat under drought, which is now funded by the GRDC Initiative ‘Root Systems for Australian Soils’.
Mr Paul Carmody
Sponsorship
Paul Carmody is currently a project manager at the University of Western Australia coordinating the Local Farmer Group Network which is funded by GRDC.
The coordination work includes the development of processes for better communication between farmer groups and researchers of which a web based network has being one of them. He has maintained active links to Oilseed Western Australia, Grower Groups Alliance, Department of Agriculture, CSIRO and CLIMA. He has a Bachelor in Agricultural Science from Melbourne University and has worked in agricultural extension for much of his career. Paul played a primary role in the re-emergence of the canola industry in Western Australia during the 1990’s and more recently in the development of a mobile biodiesel unit for the Department of Agriculture and Food. Along the way Paul has also worked for Cargill, the Australian Wheat Board, the Department of Primary Industries, and the Kondinin Group.
Ms Tracey Gianatti
Deputy Field Tours
Tracey Gianatti is currently the coordinator of the Grower Group Alliance project and is based at the University of Western Australia. This project is funded by the GRDC and Tracey works with over 15 grower groups across the WA wheatbelt to increase farmers’ ability to access information in order to improve their farm business decisions. Tracey has a BSc (Agric) with 1st class honours, and a post graduate diploma in Rural Systems Management. She has 8 years experience in facilitation and working with grower groups. Her professional interests include farming systems and the role for extension, together with grower decision-making and its impact on adoption of new technology. Out of hours, Tracey is a keen snowboarder (which is a bit difficult in Perth!) and travels extensively to feed her passion.
Lindsay Bell
Deputy Secretary
Lindsay holds a Bachelor of Agricultural Science with first class Hons in Plant and Soil Science. He is currently engaged in postgraduate research at the CRC for Plant-based Management of Dryland Salinity in the University of Western Australia. His research interests include pasture science and farming systems.
Ben Biddulph
Students Representative
Ben is a Ph.D. student at the University of Western Australia conducting research on pre-harvest sprouting and terminal drought tolerance in wheat. He is currently on study leave from the Department of Agriculture, Western Australia and on a GRS scholarship from GRDC.
E/Prof. W.R. Stern
President when conference last held in Western Australia - 1989/90
In 1978, Walter Stern was one of a group that met at Sydney University to discuss the formation of an Australian Society of Agronomy. As President of the scociety in 1989/90, he presided over the fifth conference held in Perth for the first time. He has held offices of secretary/treasurer in Queensland, secretary in the A.C.T. and president in Western Australia of the Australian Institute of Agricultural Science He has chaired a West Australian government committee on agricultural education.
Walter was C.M. Donald's first Ph D student at the Waite Institute (1957-60). He has worked on a range of crops including sugarcane, cotton, peanuts, sorghum and kenaf and also introduced pastures. His R & D work included various aspects of crop agronomy such as competition, light and water relations, cereal ear development, and intercropping. He was responsible for a subterranean clover breeding program that evolved into a national one.
Dr Peter Carberry
Immediate Past President
Peter is a Senior Principal Research Scientist with CSIRO Sustainable Ecosystems in Australia. He leads the CSIRO team based with the Agricultural Production Systems Research Unit (APSRU) in Toowoomba and is on the APSRU Management Committee. His disciplinary expertise is in crop physiology, and in the development and application of systems simulation models - he has been a key developer of the APSIM cropping systems model. In more recent times he has led major RDE projects aimed at increasing the participation of farmers and advisers in research. His current interests lie in working closely with proactive farmer groups around Australia to improve the relevance of science and the rigour of on-farm research. Over the past 20 years he has also been involved in development projects in India and Africa, the emphasis of which has been on soil fertility management and farming systems research.
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Since July 2002, Len has been GRDC Chair in Crop Agronomy at the University of Western Australia (UWA). From 1993, Len was Agronomist/Physiologist and Consortium Coordinator for Rainfed-Lowland and Flood-Prone Ecosystems in South and Southeast Asia, while based at the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) in the Philippines. Before that, he was Agronomist/Senior Agronomist/Principal Agronomist with the Queensland Department of Primary Industries for 18 years, based mainly at Emerald in Central Queensland.
Bill is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Agriculture, Food and Wine at the University of Adelaide. Prior to joining the University in 1994, Bill was with the South Australian Research & Development Institute at Turretfield and the NSW Department of Agriculture at Walgett. He completed a Bachelor of Science (Honours) in the School of Australian Environmental Studies at Griffith University before undertaking his Doctorate at the University of New England.
Darshan is a Research Officer (Wheat Agronomy) at the Centre for Cropping Systems, Department of Agriculture, Western Australia. His current R & D work is aimed at promoting adaptation of new wheat varieties in the Central Agricultural Region of WA and a state-wide leading role in issues on small grain screenings. Before joining the department in 1998, Darshan worked as a Senior Scientist (Tea Breeding) in the Council of Scientific Industrial Research, India and as a Wheat Breeder in the Himachal Pradesh Agricultural University in India. Darshan has got a Master’s and a Ph.D. in Genetics from Punjab Agricultural University, India in 1986. 
Peter (BSc. Agric. (Hons 1st Class), PhD) is Senior Research Officer and Project Manager for Lupin Agronomy at the Department of Agriculture, Western Australia (DAWA). Key responsibilities and research interest include characterising environments for grain legume production in WA and managing agronomic research for lupins. After graduating from the University of Western Australia in 1988, Peter spent three years at the International Centre for Agricultural Research in Dry Areas (ICARDA) in Syria, as a Postdoctoral Fellow conducting research on N cycling in pasture, wheat and pulse crops. Following this he joined the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) and was posted to their project in Phnom Penh. Achievements during this period include the development of the Cambodian Agronomic Soil Classification, national fertiliser recommendations for rice production and other integrated nutrient management solutions. After his stint at IRRI, Peter joined the DAWA in 1999.
Bill (B Sc Agric Hons, PhD) is Director of Agricultural Systems Research with the Department of Agriculture Western Australia. His disciplinary expertise is in soil management, having focused most strongly on soil acidity management. During the 1980s and 90s he made a significant contribution to the theoretical understanding of the mechanisms of soil acidification, and led the WA research and extension team which guided WA’s broadacre agricultural industries to adopt lime application as a routine part of production systems. More recently Bill has led projects on low recharge cropping systems and now on nutrient management in the grains industry. He has been based in the WA’s wheatbelt for most of his professional life (Merredin 9 years then Northam 12 years). Bill has now moved back to the city where he and his wife Caroline enjoy the lifestyle of the port of Fremantle – a place that is an enticement for their two adult daughters to visit often! 
Prof. Siddique holds a Bachelor of Agriculture (BSc Ag) with 1 st class honours from Kerala Agricultural University, a Masters in Crop Physiology from the Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi and a Ph.D. in Environmental and Crop Physiology from the University of Western Australia. 
Jairo is Principal Research Scientist in CSIRO Plant Industry based at the Centre for Environment and Life Sciences, in Perth, Western Australia. He has a Ph.D in Crop Physiology from LaTrobe University in Melbourne, Australia and a B.sc in Plant Biology from Universidad del Valle in Cali, Colombia and a M.sc in Ecological Plant Physiology from CINVESTAV in Mexico. He has worked with the Rockefeller Foundation’s program on rural development in Colombia, with CIAT in Cali, Colombia, with the University of North Wales in Bangor, UK, with the Laboratory of Biomedical and Environmental Sciences at UCLA in Los Angeles, USA. 
After completing his Ph.D. in Wyoming, Mike joined the Western Australian Herbicide Resistance Initiative at UWA as a weeds Agronomist in 1999. Prior to this, he had worked as a research agronomist with the Victorian Department of Agriculture at Rutherglen and Walpeup from 1986-1995. His research has focused on developing and evaluating techniques aimed at preventing weed seed inputs into the seed bank. He has also been investigating the types and extent of herbicide resistance in wild radish populations in Western Australia. In addition he has been investigating alternate weed control strategies for crop production systems. 
Jens Berger (BSc Hons, MSc, PhD) is a Senior Research Officer at CLIMA, based at CSIRO Plant Industry in Perth. He has 12 years experience in investigating adaptation in pulses to different environments in Australia, the Middle East and the Indian subcontinent, and is particularly interested in using an applied ecological approach, where plant adaptation is examined in the context of habitat of origin. Jens organized the social activities of the 12 th Australasian Plant Breeding Conference held in Perth in 2002, and is keen to extend a similar level of hospitality to facilitate friendly interaction among the delegates of the 13 th Agronomy Conference. 
Alan Meldrum is the WA Pulse Development Officer for Pulse Australia. The role takes in all facets of pulse production and post-farmgate areas. This includes working closely with the pulse agronomy team from the Department of Agriculture to assist in the development of profitable pulse options for growers, maintaining close ties to the agribusiness network, and liaising with local exporters and handlers of pulses.
Neil Turner is currently a Chief Research Scientist at CSIRO Plant Industry in Perth. In October 2005, he will retire from CSIRO after 31 years with the organization and continue with appointment as Adjunct Professor in the Centre for Legumes in Mediterranean Agriculture in the Faculty of Natural and Agricultural Sciences at the University of Western Australia. His research interests are in the adaptation of crops and trees to water-limited environments and he has worked with a wide range of species not only in Australia, but also in the USA, UK, Germany, The Philippines and India. He has also served on the Board of Trustees of the International Center for Research in Agroforestry. 
Dr Tina Botwright Acuña completed her PhD in Agricultural Science at the University of Tasmania in 1997, and has held postdoctoral fellowships with CSIRO Plant Industry in Perth (1997 – 2001) and at the International Rice Institute in the Philippines (2001-2003), researching traits to improve yield of wheat and rice, respectively, in low rainfall environments. Since July 2003, Tina has worked as a Research Fellow at the University of Western Australia in the School of Plant Biology with Prof. Len Wade on hardpan penetration ability of wheat under drought, which is now funded by the GRDC Initiative ‘Root Systems for Australian Soils’. 
Paul Carmody is currently a project manager at the University of Western Australia coordinating the Local Farmer Group Network which is funded by GRDC. 
Tracey Gianatti is currently the coordinator of the Grower Group Alliance project and is based at the University of Western Australia. This project is funded by the GRDC and Tracey works with over 15 grower groups across the WA wheatbelt to increase farmers’ ability to access information in order to improve their farm business decisions. Tracey has a BSc (Agric) with 1st class honours, and a post graduate diploma in Rural Systems Management. She has 8 years experience in facilitation and working with grower groups. Her professional interests include farming systems and the role for extension, together with grower decision-making and its impact on adoption of new technology. Out of hours, Tracey is a keen snowboarder (which is a bit difficult in Perth!) and travels extensively to feed her passion.
Lindsay holds a Bachelor of Agricultural Science with first class Hons in Plant and Soil Science. He is currently engaged in postgraduate research at the CRC for Plant-based Management of Dryland Salinity in the University of Western Australia. His research interests include pasture science and farming systems. 
Ben is a Ph.D. student at the University of Western Australia conducting research on pre-harvest sprouting and terminal drought tolerance in wheat. He is currently on study leave from the Department of Agriculture, Western Australia and on a GRS scholarship from GRDC. 
In 1978, Walter Stern was one of a group that met at Sydney University to discuss the formation of an Australian Society of Agronomy. As President of the scociety in 1989/90, he presided over the fifth conference held in Perth for the first time. He has held offices of secretary/treasurer in Queensland, secretary in the A.C.T. and president in Western Australia of the Australian Institute of Agricultural Science He has chaired a West Australian government committee on agricultural education.
Peter is a Senior Principal Research Scientist with CSIRO Sustainable Ecosystems in Australia. He leads the CSIRO team based with the Agricultural Production Systems Research Unit (APSRU) in Toowoomba and is on the APSRU Management Committee. His disciplinary expertise is in crop physiology, and in the development and application of systems simulation models - he has been a key developer of the APSIM cropping systems model. In more recent times he has led major RDE projects aimed at increasing the participation of farmers and advisers in research. His current interests lie in working closely with proactive farmer groups around Australia to improve the relevance of science and the rigour of on-farm research. Over the past 20 years he has also been involved in development projects in India and Africa, the emphasis of which has been on soil fertility management and farming systems research.