Western Australia
January 30, 2008
William Erskine, Assistant
Director General (Research) at the International Center for
Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA) in Syria for the
last seven years, has commenced as Director of the
Centre for Legumes In
Mediterranean Agriculture (CLIMA) as it consolidates its
third phase as a research centre within the University of
Western Australia (UWA).
UK
born, Professor Erskine completed a Bachelor of Arts in 1973, a
Masters of Agriculture in 1976 and a PhD (University of
Cambridge, Department of Applied Biology) in 1979.
He was a tutor with the Agriculture Faculty of the University of
Papua New Guinea, 1973 to 1977; Coultshurst scholar, Department
of Applied Biology, Magdalene College, Cambridge, 1978 to 1979;
Post-doctoral fellow in lentil breeding at ICARDA, Aleppo,
Syria, 1980 to1981; lentil breeder at ICARDA, 1981 to 1998 and
Leader, Germplasm Improvement Program, ICARDA, 1998 to 2000.
While working for the Rome-based International Board for Plant
Genetic Resources in 1979, assignments included leading an
expedition to collect crop germplasm in the far-west of Nepal.
Professor Erskine intends to maintain CLIMA’s focus on
beneficial outcomes for WA legume growers and industry, while
improving links to other Australian and overseas legume research
groups.
These international links include several existing important
projects with ICARDA and the International Crops Research
Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) in India.
“Such international collaboration gives access to elite
germplasm and, typically, faster selection and development of
grain and pasture legume varieties that will grow profitably in
the target environment,” he said.
CLIMA has released more than 45 grain and pasture legume
varieties, produced research outcomes with very significant
benefits for WA farming systems and trained more than 100
post-graduates in legume science, many of whom have made
significant impacts on the industry.
However, Professor Erskine acknowledged that for CLIMA to
continue to innovate in legume science and technology and play
its part in maintaining and, hopefully, expanding legume crops,
robust crop production solutions must be provided in partnership
with grower groups and the industry.
“Identifying germplasm with appropriate levels of resistance and
then developing workable agronomic packages is the ideal mix and
the one CLIMA will concentrate its resources on,” Professor
Erskine said.
CLIMA has been headquartered at UWA’s Crawley campus since
commencing in 1992 as a Co-operative Research Centre (CRC) and
transforming in 2000, after its CRC phase ended, into a research
alliance between the WA Department of Agriculture and Food
(DAFWA), UWA, CSIRO and Murdoch University.
Last year the CLIMA Board endorsed a plan to continue CLIMA as a
research centre at UWA from July 1, 2007, with continued
collaboration with DAFWA, CSIRO, Murdoch University and others.
Welcoming Professor Erskine’s appointment, UWA Chair in
Agriculture and UWA
Institute of Agriculture Director, Professor Kadambot
Siddique, a former CLIMA Director (2001 to 2006), said CLIMA’s
partners in the farming community and industry would benefit
from a fresh and sharpened focus.
“William has spent 25 years working with legumes and is an
internationally respected scientist and a proven leader and
manager of outcome driven research teams, which made him the
right appointment, from a strong field of candidates, to promote
productive, profitable legumes in rotations as a key to
sustainable agriculture in WA,” Professor Siddique said. |
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