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Prestigious award for CSIRO cotton researchers
Australia
April 26, 2006


CSIRO researchers, Drs Danny Llewellyn, Greg Constable and Gary Fitt, have been presented with the Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering (ATSE) Clunies Ross Award for 2006.


Adoption of their research in the cotton industry has lead to 25-fold reduction in pesticide use. Using a combination of genetic modification, conventional breeding and insect ecology, they tackled the moth, Helicoverpa armigera, the most destructive pest of broad-acre crops.

The researchers produced a suite of cotton varieties containing a protein from Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt), a naturally occurring soil bacterium, that is toxic to Helicoverpa larvae but is safe for humans and the environment and supported this new technology with a pre-emptive management plan. Now, the CSIRO Bt cotton varieties represent about 75 per cent of all the cotton planted in Australia.

The three scientists were each presented with a silver medal in Melbourne on 26 April 2006.

More information on the Clunies Ross Foundation and its awards

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