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A leading researcher from The University of Western Australia who is one of the world's most highly cited plant biologists has been recognised with a prestigious national award.Winthrop Professor Rana Munns, a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science and Honorary Fellow at CSIRO, won a Citation Award as part of the 2012 Thomson Reuters Australia Citation & Innovation Awards presented in Canberra last week.

Professor Munns is recognised internationally for her insights into the fundamental principles of crop adaptation to salinity for its application to the agricultural industry.

Her research has identified the critical plant processes involved in tolerance of salinity and showed what distinguishes salinity stress from drought stress.

Professor Munns also led a team that discovered important genes for salt tolerance and showed that these could increase the yield of durum wheat in saline soils.

UWA Vice-Chancellor Professor Paul Johnson congratulated Professor Munns on her outstanding achievement.

"Professor Munns is one of 250 academics in the world whose studies are most cited in other research articles over a 20-year period," Professor Johnson said.

Media references

Winthrop Professor Rana Munns (UWA School of Plant Biology)
Michael Sinclair-Jones (UWA Public Affairs)  (+61 8)  6488 3229  /  (+61 4) 00 700 783