Professor Furbank appointed new Director of the Centre
The Centre has appointed Professor Robert Furbank as its new Director, effective January 2016.
Professor Furbank will take over the role from Professor Murray Badger, who has been the Centre Director since its inception in 2014.
Professor Murray Badger, outgoing Centre Director
Over the past two years, Professor Badger has led the Centre with enormous dedication and drive during the important consolidation phase. Under his leadership, the Centre now has grown to more than 110 members and is delivering great science through the many scientific publications, collaborations and a vibrant outreach program.
Professor Badger decided to retire as Centre Director at the end of 2015 due to personal reasons. “I have no doubts that Professor Robert Furbank is the right person for the job and I am confident that the future of the Centre will be in good hands”, he said.
Professor Badger will continue working as a Chief Investigator as well as leading the Badger Lab at The Australian National University, Research School of Biology.
Professor Robert Furbank, incoming Centre Director
Professor Furbank has worked for more than 25 years on crop improvement strategies using cross disciplinary approaches. He has ample experience in integrative plant biology, collaboration and translation into crops and is passionate and committed to translational plant biology.
During his previous role as Director of the High Resolution Plant Phenomics Centre, Professor Furbank was involved with the Centre as a Partner Investigator, representing CSIRO.
“Murray and I worked closely together in developing the vision for the Centre and while it is unfortunate to lose Murray’s leadership at such a pivotal time in the Centre’s development, I feel we share a common vision for the future and I take on the role of Director with great enthusiasm, ” he said.
“The Centre is a unique group of world class researchers who can work from the gene and enzyme all the way to field based breeding. We are globally better positioned than any research organisation I am aware of to implement our basic / strategic research into crop improvement.
The future will hold many challenges for us but I think the future success of the science in the centre is built upon the strongest possible foundations and I would like to thank Murray for all he has done to ensure a bright future for translational photosynthesis research.”