Australian Plant Geneticist Honoured

The head of a leading Australian plant genetics research centre is South Australia's Scientist of the Year.

Australian Centre for Plant Functional Genomics chief executive Peter Langridge was honoured by SA Science and Information Economy Minister Tom Kenyon last week.

Mr Kenyon said Prof Langridge had played a key role in plant genomics technology which is critical to ensuring global food security.

"Australia is regarded as a world leader in this technology because of his work and he's an outstanding winner of South Australia's highest award for science," Mr Kenyon said.

The genomics centre is based at Adelaide University's Waite campus with research arms at the universities of Melbourne, Queensland and South Australia.

Most of the research work done centres on developing ways for wheat and barley plants to cope better against environmental stresses, such as drought and salinity, but also focuses on ways to use nutrients more efficiently.

Source: http://www.weeklytimesnow.com.au