News Archive

A year after he returned to his beloved agricultural research, former Vice-Chancellor Alan Robson was presenting an award in his honour.

The inaugural Robson Medal for Research Excellence in Agriculture and Related Areas went to Associate Professor Michael Renton from the School of Plant Biology.

The award is for early career researchers and is judged on a peer-reviewed paper published within the previous 12 months.

A/Professor Renton's paper, Does cutting herbicide rates threaten the sustainability of weed management in cropping systems? was published in the Journal of Theoretical Biology 283 (2011) 14-27.

The Medal acknowledges  the significant contributions made by Emeritus Professor Robson over many decades at UWA, including his time in the Faculty of Natural and Agricultural Sciences.

Staff and PhD students from UWA, DAFWA and CSIRO, were invited to submit peer-reviewed papers for assessment for this award. Only papers whose first or last authors had completed their PhD within the past ten years were included. The call attracted 27 applicants competing for the medal and prestige only - there was no cash prize.

Runners up were UWA scientists Dr Imran Malik (Centre for Legumes in Mediterranean Agriculture) and Dr Roberto Busi (Australian Herbicide Resistance Initiative).

E/Professor Robson praised the high standard of entries and commended the multi-disciplinary approach  used to synthesise different types of knowledge in A/Professor Renton's paper.

Since winning the award, A/Professor Renton has given a plenary presentation on the topic at the Global Herbicide Resistance Challenge international conference and been invited to give a similar presentation at the European Weeds Conference to be held in Samsun, Turkey, in June.