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The University of Western Australia's Professor Kadambot Siddique, whose mission is to ‘feed the world', and UWA arts, law and economics student - and football umpire - Timothy Lefroy have been named winners in the Western Australian of the Year awards.

Winthrop Professor Kadambot Siddique AM won the Professions Award.  He was recognised as an international leader in crop science, dryland agriculture and food production systems.  Professor Siddique has been pivotal in assisting Australian farmers improve their agricultural productivity, and instrumental in establishing the pulse industries in WA and nationally through the development and release of chickpea, lentil and grass pea varieties which have superior quality and yield.  His personal research and collaboration with others has helped Australia become one of the major grain legume exporting nations in the world.

Currently Director of UWA's Institute for Agriculture, he has published more than 250 scientific papers, review articles and book chapters and is on the editorial board of a number of international scientific journals.  Over 29 years he has worked to set up international collaboration in research and teaching between WA and countries such as China, India and Middle East. In 2011 Professor Siddique was awarded a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) for advancing agricultural science.

Timothy Lefroy (21) from Moora, won the Youth Award.  He is engaged with his local community as a student, athlete and volunteer.  Timothy was Race Director of this year's Rottnest Channel Swim, coordinating one of the most successful events in the history of the swim.  He is also Treasurer of the Rotary Club of Crawley.  For his Honour's thesis, Timothy is researching the viability of family farming in WA and the advantages of alternative business structures.

Timothy is committed to breaking down barriers within his community.  Concerned about youth issues in his local electorate, he was elected as a Member for Moore in the 2012 Youth Parliament where he debated legislation and emphasised the need for better education and social infrastructure in regional communities.  He worked to increase voting participation rates in regional areas as an ambassador for the WA Electoral Commission.

He is a professional umpire in the West Australian Football League and in the future hopes to umpire in the AFL, having umpired more than 100 games of community football.  Noticing the barriers between players and officials, he has worked to increase the level of respect and understanding through his umpiring.

For more information: Celebrate WA .

Media references

David Stacey (UWA Public Affairs)  (+61 8) 6488 3229 / (+61 4) 32 637 716