Centre for Legumes in Mediterranean Agriculture (CLIMA) Director and Professor of Crop Science at the University of Western Australia (UWA), Kadambot Siddique, has been elected a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering (ATSE).

The citation recognised his outstanding contribution to Australian and international agriculture, particularly his innovative research and leadership in production agronomy, crop physiology, germplasm development and breeding of grain legumes (pulses) and cereal crops of benefit to the grains industry in Australia and overseas.

In 2001, Professor Siddique, who is also an Adjunct Professor at the Muresk Institute of Agriculture at the Curtin University of Technology, received the prestigious Urrbrae Memorial Award for his contribution to Australian agriculture.

Speaking after the ATSE Fellowship was bestowed, Dean of the Faculty of Natural & Agricultural Sciences at UWA and Chair of the CLIMA Governing Board, Professor Alistar Robertson, said Professor Siddique had successfully led CLIMA beyond its initial phase as a Co-operative Research Centre (CRC) to become an internationally acclaimed centre of excellence.

CLIMA is the only Centre in Australia to be thriving with its original partners (WA Department of Agriculture, UWA, CSIRO and Murdoch University) for such a length of time after CRC funding ceased.

“CLIMA’s big strength, under Professor Siddique’s direction, is successfully linking basic research to applied plant breeding and production agronomy, often collaboratively with complementary overseas-based organisations,” Professor Robertson said.

“CLIMA has reaped the benefits of the respect scientific and farming communities here and overseas have for Professor Siddique, who has developed and commercially released nine pulse varieties during the past eight years in Australia.

“A rare talent, combining the highly refined skills of researcher and scientist with a commercial savvy that enables him to identify and develop paths to market, Professor Siddique also leads, inspires and empowers others,” Professor Robertson said.

Before his appointment in 2001 as CLIMA Director, Professor Siddique headed the WA Department of Agriculture’s Pulse Productivity Program.

His academic qualifications include: BSc (Ag) Hons, 1977, Agricultural Science, Kerala Agricultural University, India; MSc, 1979, Crop Physiology, Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi, India; PhD, 1985, Environmental and Crop Physiology, UWA.