Centre for Plant & Water Science - Central Queensland University

Centre for Plant & Water Science 2008 Annual Report
Our staff fluctuated during the year, welcoming Jeffrey Conaghan as the Research
Technician and Dr Brett Roe and Brock McDonald as members of the RIRDC rooftop
project.
We also welcomed Dr Sanjay Singh as an Endeavour Foundation Post-Doctoral Fellow from
India, funded by the Australian Government to research drought tolerance in tomato, adding
research strength to a project funded by the German Government indirectly through the
Asian Vegetable Research and Development Centre (Taiwan). Delphine Lacombe, an intern
from France also assisted on the same project, and Loic Burtin from the same institute in
France worked on oxygation for six months. Varinderjit Khattra of the Indian Institute of
Technology, Kharagpur spent four months working on NIRS. We were also fortunate to
have a number (8) of volunteers who spent time learning research techniques and supporting
our staff and students. These included Dr Mar Mar Thi, Elizabeth Atchison, Elena Churilova,
Geeta Gautam Kafle, Caroline Midmore, Lynda Painter, Rita Subedi, Sousan Firoozi and a
number of high school students. Ethan Harbinson, a student placement from Glenmore State
High School, also spent time assisting Centre staff. Blandine Geneste, a visiting student
from France, volunteered her time during her stay in Rockhampton.
The core faculty academic staff of Prof Midmore, Prof Walsh and A/Prof Ashwath, as well
as Centre Research Officers Dr Surya Bhattarai and Dr Phul Subedi, and administrative
support from Linda Ahern has provided the stability for the Centre. Ms Ahern took a wellearned
2.5 month long service leave until the end of the year. These staff were supported by
other academics (Harrower, Newby, Reed) and casual administrative staff, the Centre
running on 2.0 EFT Academics, 2.1 EFT Research Officers, 3.75 EFT technical and 1.35
EFT administrative staff and 16 EFT postgraduate students (14 FT, 4 PT).
Dr Din Zahid returned to Pakistan in February after his one year Pakistan Higher Education
Council Fellowship with the CPWS, and Dr Xinming Chen arrived in August, also for a
one-year Fellowship with the CPWS, funded by the China Scholarship Council. This
research provided support to ongoing studies on oxygation.
We were fortunate to welcome a number of new post-graduate students throughout the year:
Thakur Bhattarai (community forestry), Elena Churilova (hydroponics) and Resham Gautam
(native vegetation). Three students, Rebecca Jolley, Rashmi Jayaram and Kim Bedwell,
withdrew in 2008 due to personal reasons, and a number of students converted to part-time
due to work commitments. Amongst these was Kartik Venkatraman who gained
employment as the coordinator of Technical Services for CQ Waste Management with the
Rockhampton Regional Council in 2008 and Lance Pendergast converted to part-time in
2008 to work for the Queensland Dept of Primary Industries.
We also farewelled Rob Lowry with close to 12 years service as a Research Worker, and
welcomed Graham Fox as the Research Worker (part-time). Both Sunita Lata and Lynda
Painter were engaged as part-time Research Workers on the native vegetation project funded
by Ergon/Powerlink and we also welcomed Amanda Twomey, Research Officer working on
a Bio-diesel project, followed by an RIRDC project on fruit and nut trees. Amanda left at the
end of the year. Andrew Rank and Bhima Bhattarai were welcomed for various project
assistance and Neil Percival for administrative assistance. We farewelled Brie Crane, Neil
Percival and Vicki Barden from their casual positions. Of faculty staff, we farewelled Dr
Billy Sinclair as our Molecular Biologist, and still await a replacement.
Professor Midmore was successful in gaining support for oxygation research, funded by
NPSI and HAL, and continued his research on rooftop food production funded by RIRDC.
He also gained new funding for a desk-top study on Australian native fruit and nut tree
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