News

Congratulations to Centre researcher Alex Wu, who has been awarded the 2020 Peter Goldacre award  by the Australian Society of Plant Scientists (ASPS).

This award is presented annually by the ASPS and the successful applicant is invited to present their work in a plenary Goldacre Lecture at the annual ComBio meeting, and to submit this presentation for subsequent publication in the journal Functional Plant Biology. In 2020, due to current restrictions, Alex has been invited to give his plenary Goldacre Lecture via a virtual seminar through the upcoming Plantae Webinar series that is part of American Society of Plant Biology at the end of the year.

“The ASPS Goldacre Award is a significant milestone in my career and will inspire me to do more great research,” says Alex Wu.  “This award, together with the excellent mentorship and       intellectual environment of our ARC   Centre of Excellence for Translational Photosynthesis is a huge encouragement for my scientific career”.

Bob Furbank said “When I won the Goldacre, close to 30 years ago, I barely knew what it was; I then looked with astonishment at the list of famous plant biologists who had been awarded it! It was a real honour and the medal sits in pride of place on my bookshelf. Well done Alex and I am proud that the Centre has played a role in your success.”

Peter Goldacre was an enthusiastic researcher who was held in great respect by his peers. His tragic death in 1960 at age 34, shocked and saddened all his friends and colleagues. The Goldacre Medal was established as a lasting tribute to his contributions in plant physiology, and as an encouragement to young researchers.

Past award winners include highly prestigious scientists such as Roger Slack (1970), our Director  Bob Furbank (1992) and many of our Centre’s Chief and Associate Investigators including Graham Farquhar (1980), Murray Badger (1982), John Evans (1991) Spencer Whitney (2002), Min Chen (2013) and Caitlin Byrt (2018).

Alex Wu’s research focuses on building dynamic plant/crop growth and development models that contain complex plant processes operating at vastly differing temporal and physical scales. He harnesses the models to explore emergent consequences of potential plant trait manipulation in real-world situations, generating knowledge to help translate fundamental plant biology research to crop adaptation and plant improvement.

Some of his publications include:

Nature Plants: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41477-019-0398-8

Functional Plant Biology: https://www.publish.csiro.au/fp/fp17225 which received the 2018 Australian Plant Scientists Association Best Paper Award.

Congratulations Alex on this new  and well-deserved recognition of your hard work!