THREE researchers from The University of Western Australia (UWA), who are doing the hard yards to help improve the State's cropping and livestock industries, have been recognised for their efforts.
With the UWA Institute of Agriculture ranked as number one in Australia and 15th in the world, it is no surprise that more than half of the 13 UWA academics included on this year's highly cited researchers list, by London-based analytics company Clarivate, are leaders in agriculture, plant and/or animal sciences. Inclusion on the highly coveted list means the research undertaken and published during the past decade is not only valuable, but is in demand.
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The methodology that determines the who's who of influential researchers draws on the data and analysis performed by bibliometric experts and data scientists at the Institute for Scientific Information at Clarivate.
We spoke to three of UWA's professors who made the 2022 list about their hard work and achievements and what's next on their agendas.
Professor Jacqueline Batley
HAVING always looked up to those people who have made it onto Clarivate's highly cited researchers list, professor Jacqueline Batley from UWA's School of Biological Sciences, narrowly missed out on making the list in recent years, and was ecstatic to have made it onto this year's list.
She is a world-renowned plant scientist and molecular biologist who was named in the Cross-Field category.
Hailing from the United Kingdom, after finishing her PhD, professor Batley moved to Australia in 2002 and started a job at the Department of Primary Industries in Victoria, working in crop genomics.
While she enjoyed working for the State government, she soon felt the need to do more of her own independent research and so moved to the University of Queensland in 2007 where she set up her own research group in crop genomics.
"I had a fellowship from the Australian Research Council and then in 2014, I got another fellowship from them and was able to move that to UWA, and I've been here ever since," professor Batley said.
Her research team's achievements include finding genes that control blackleg resistance, the most regularly occurring, serious disease of canola in WA, and providing ways for breeding companies to screen for those genes in their breeding populations.
"Normally they have to artificially infect them and then see if they are resistant or not, but we have now found a way they can quickly screen it just using the DNA, so it's a lot more cost effective," professor Batley said.
"That project is ongoing, as we are trying to find more sources of resistance to that.
"We are also looking at trying to find genes for other diseases and see if there are any novel sources in wild germplasm we can then bring in and use."
The mother of four said she found her research extremely rewarding.
"With four kids, I want to make sure that there's enough food for them to eat in the future," professor Batley said.
"With population growth and climate change - it's a big problem as we don't know how crops are going to react.
"To be able to conduct research that is useful and to try and help sustain food security is really important to me.
"Traditionally people haven't been worried about food security, but I think now everyone is becoming a lot more aware about where food comes from and that we do need to make sure we sustain it in the future.
"The PhD students I mentor, and the early career researchers, are the next generation, the people who are going to be carrying on doing the research and I hope one day to see them on this list."
Professor Hans Lambers
A BIODIVERSITY expert, professor Hans Lambers was recognised in two fields - agricultural sciences and plant and animal science, in the 2022 highly cited researcher list.
The inclusion of a researcher's work in, not one, but two fields is a feat not achieved by many.
Born in the Netherlands, professor Lambers was appointed as the professor of ecophysiology at Utrecht University before he migrated to Australia in 1998 where he was appointed the professor of plant biology/ ecology at UWA and went on to become the head of UWA's School of Plant Biology from 2002-2012.
His years of research has contributed significantly to understanding the mineral nutrition of Australian plants, particularly how they obtain phosphorus from the soil and use it efficiently.
"Nature has had millions of years to adapt to our environments so our native plants are amazingly well adapted to our very nutrient poor soils," professor Lambers said.
"Think of our banksias, grevilleas and hakeas for example - they run on an oily rag and are extremely efficient at getting that tiny bit of phosphorus in our soils and they can also function with very low concentrations in their leaves.
"I did a lot of work on native plants here in WA and thought, if those native plants are so good at doing this, is it possible to also try to work towards crop plants that are much more efficient at dealing with phosphorus too."
As part of his research, professor Lambers studied lupin and chickpea crops, which have similar traits to Australia's native plants.
"We also looked at traits to make plants function at lower phosphorus concentrations because that's what our banksias, grevilleas and hakeas actually do," he said.
"That would, on one hand, save a lot of money for farmers, who spend a lot on buying fertiliser of course, but it would also reduce the negative impacts on the environment of excess phosphorus that ends up outside the farmers paddock and in areas you don't want it."
Professor Lambers said the adoption of his discoveries regarding phosphorus efficient plantswas far quicker in China than here in WA.
"To some extent our farmers have taken advantage of the opportunities by using lupins for example, which have traits similar to banksias and hakeas," he said.
"They also use chickpeas, and we did a lot of work on screening chickpea cultivars to find out which are better for our soils than other ones."
Professor Lambers said Australia had also been a lot slower at adopting practices like intercropping where specific crops are planted together to assist one another in drawing nutrients from the soil.
"A lot of WA farmers are really interested in this stuff, but it has not really taken off at the rate I would like to see - there are still plenty of opportunities," he said.
With numerous research projects being undertaken on native plants including native grasses by a team of up to 15 people including local and visiting PhD students, professor Lambers said although he was now retired, he felt privileged to be able to continue his research and wouldn't be stopping any time soon.
Professor Kadambot Siddique
THE UWA Institute of Agriculture's director, hackett professor Kadambot Siddique was included on this year's highly cited researchers list in the same two fields as professor Lambers - agricultural sciences and plant and animal science.
With his agricultural career spanning more than 30 years, he has built a stellar reputation both locally in the WA's agricultural sector and internationally.
Having grown up in the agricultural region of Kerala, India, Mr Siddique came to Australia when he was awarded a scholarship to study his PhD in environmental crop physiology at UWA in 1981.
Upon completing his PhD in 1985, Mr Siddique joined DPIRD (then the Department of Agriculture) where he worked as a cereal crop physiologist, principal scientist and leader of the Department of Agriculture and Food, Western Australia (DAFWA) pulse program and in 2001 as the director of the Centre for Legumes in Mediterranean Agriculture (CLIMA) at UWA.
In 2006 he was appointed to establish and lead the UWA Institute of Agriculture.
His major contribution to agriculture has been crop yield improvements in grain legumes and wheat in the fields of crop physiology, production agronomy, farming systems, germplasm development and breeding.
Having appeared on Clarivate's highly cited list for several years, professor Siddique is also responsible for establishing significant international collaborations with leading universities and research institutions, especially in China and India.
"Our projects with research institutions in India cover the drought and heat tolerance of crops," professor Siddique said.
"Through our collaborations with China we are looking at soil nutrient and soil biology innovation to cropping systems, crop water use, nitrogen and fertiliser use efficiency and how we can reduce the environmental footprint while maintaining productivity and profitability in parts of China that have relevance to WA - mainly the drylands.
"We've also done some work on the impact of climate change on nutrient composition and what it does to the various components of the protein."
UWA is also one of the major nodes of a large corporate research centre recently funded by the Federal government which will investigate how antibiotics move into the soil and end up in the food chain.
"The research will focus on the use of antibiotics in animal production feed systems and in the horticultural industry and how we can monitor and minimise it getting into our food systems," professor Siddique said.
To help promote the extension and adoption of UWA's research within the State's local agricultural sector, he said UWA regularly worked with the Grower Group Alliance (GGA) and also uses UWA Farm Ridgefield near Pingelly as a demonstration site.
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While acknowledging his role as the director of the Institute of Agriculture meant a lot of his time was taken up by administration duties, professor Siddique said he still liked to be active in his research.
"It is a collaborative effort, but it's always pleasing to be recognised by an analysis like this because it's purely based on metrics," he said.
"It's also important for the university, because our national and international ranking is hugely weighted on the number of our highly cited researchers."
