University News

Thirteen Deans from six agricultural universities around China will be at The University of Western Australia for a three-day workshop on agricultural research and education from tomorrow.

Developed by team members from three different organisations, INFFER is the winner of this year's Australian Research Council Eureka Prize for Excellence in Research by an Interdisciplinary Team.

The effect of climate change on large ocean-based North West Shelf industries, such as coastal engineering and fisheries, will be the focus of a symposium to be held at The University of Western Australia.

Some of Australia’s best farming research was on display at the recent Institute of Agriculture’s Frontiers in Agriculture Postgraduate Showcase 2009.

Seagrass meadows have joined the endangered list of ecosystems, along with tropical rainforests, coral reefs and mangroves.

A WA-led international team of researchers has made an important discovery about geological processes that were active in the early Earth, more than 2.7 billion years ago.

The Great Southern Development Commission welcomed twenty-five postgraduate students to the Great Southern last Friday. The students, from Africa, Europe, South Asia, the USA and Australia, are currently visiting the UWA Centre of Excellence in Natural Resource Management in Albany, to undertake a two week program studying water issues in the Great Southern as part of the International WaterCentre’s Master of Integrated Water Management Program.

The question of whether bioenergy is a viable option will be discussed at The University of Western Australia next week.

The University of Western Australia-based Centre for Exploration Targeting (CET) will showcase university research and its impact on mineral exploration during a symposium next week.

Photo courtesy of Barbara Knott

The lack of knowledge about the importance of pollination in restoring native ecosystems is threatening the successful restoration of global biodiversity hotspots, according to Professor Kingsley Dixon, of The University of Western Australia.

A restoration ecology professor from The University of Western Australia is using historians' techniques to help assess degraded or damaged landscapes.

The discovery of a gene responsible for the production of sandalwood oil has been hailed as the catalyst for wide-ranging and significant new opportunities for Western Australia's ever-growing sandalwood industry.

Australia's brightest and best agricultural research was recently on display at the ‘Frontiers in Agriculture Postgraduate Showcase 2009' at The University of Western Australia (UWA), Institute of Agriculture (IOA).

Farmers in WA could benefit as a result of a symposium "Understanding Practice Change by Rural Landholders" to be held at The University of Western Australia next week.

Two researchers from The University of Western Australia - one who co-developed the world's most precise clock and the other, dedicated to finding ways of repairing ecosystems - have been awarded Australia's most prestigious research fellowships.

Professor Mike Tobar, internationally-renowned for his studies of measurement, and Professor Richard Hobbs, a world leader in restoration ecology, are two of 15 national Australian Laureate Fellowships winners, announced today by Federal Minister for Innovation, Industry, Science and Research, Senator Kim Carr.

Researchers at The University of Western Australia will conduct a $833,000 project aimed at future-proofing the State's $24 million table grape industry. 

The research will investigate the impact of climate on the development cycle of table grapes and other temperate crops in WA.  The $583,000 funding from the Australian Research Council's Linkage Project was matched by $250,000 from research partners the Department of Agriculture and Food Western Australia (DAFWA) and the Gascoyne Table Grape Growers Association.

Western Australian farmers are likely to benefit from the research of two award-winning PhD students from The University of Western Australia, Megan Chadwick and Weihua Chen.

They have won travelling fellowships honouring the former Director General of the Department of Agriculture, Dr Mike Carroll. The scholarships will enable them to enrich their postgraduate studies with overseas and interstate study tours.

One of WA’s most widespread freshwater fish, the western rainbowfish, may yield new insight into the processes of species evolution, thanks to PhD candidate Michael Young (24), a researcher in The University of Western Australia’s Centre for Evolutionary Biology in the School of Animal Biology.

The Royal Australian Navy is a perfect role model when it comes to being a good neighbour.

Juggling work commitments and study has paid off for three University of Western Australia (UWA) post-graduate students who recently completed their theses with the Western Australian Herbicide Resistance Initiative (WAHRI).

David Minkey, Catherine Borger and David Ferris were granted study leave from the Department of Agriculture and Food WA (DAFWA) to complete their PhDs with WAHRI.

Based at the UWA School of Plant Biology, they will soon be awarded doctorates for their research.

Two science students from The University of Western Australia have won prestigious Wentworth Group Scholarships.

The scholarships were awarded for the first time this year by the Wentworth Group of Concerned Scientists, an independent group of eminent Australian scientists concerned with advancing solutions to secure the long-term health of Australia’s land, water and biodiversity.

UWA winners Sarah Arnold, 21, of Darlington, and Tas Thamo, 22, of West Perth, will use their scholarship win for direct mentoring with Wentworth Group scientists.

A new approach to fertiliser management that investigates how different wheat and canola genotypes respond to fertilisers will help graingrowers develop better nutrient management practices and reduce the financial and environmental costs of wasted fertiliser.