6 May 2013 Lincoln University appoints distinguished pair to Emeritus Professor rank

Two senior Lincoln University professors, both of whom joined the staff in 1994, have been appointed to professor emeritus/emerita rank, recognising outstanding contributions and academic stature in their fields of study.  

Professor Ian Spellerberg of the Department of Environmental Management, foundation Director of the Isaac Centre for Nature Conservation, becomes Professor Emeritus of Nature Conservation and Distinguished Professor Alison Stewart, foundation Director of the Bio-Protection Research Centre and Lincoln University’s first woman professor when appointed to a personal chair in plant pathology in 1999, becomes Professor Emerita of Plant Pathology.

Professor Emeritus Ian Spellerberg, a past Director of Environmental Science at Southampton University, is one of New Zealand’s most respected scientists in the field of nature conservation and sustainability. He was named Science Communicator of the Year in 2008 by the New Zealand Association of Scientists and in 2010 he was made an Honorary Fellow of the Environment Institute of Australia and New Zealand.

In his promotion of conservation and sustainability, Professor Spellerberg has contributed widely to the literature on native plants through authorship, co-authorship and editing. He had a long and fruitful association with the late Diana, Lady Isaac. Together they were responsible for the establishment of the Isaac Centre for Nature Conservation at Lincoln University in 1999 and he became its foundation Director.

Internationally, Professor Spellerberg has had a notable connection with the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and has helped arrange visits to Lincoln University by senior IUCN representatives. Professor Spellerberg initiated Lincoln University’s international academic connections with BOKU University in Vienna, Austria, and with Georg-August University, Göttingen, Germany, which have given students exchange opportunities to study nature conservation internationally.  The Georg-August collaboration has led to a world first in academic programmes – a jointly awarded master’s degree in international nature conservation. 

An on-going international project is his involvement with the prestigious 10-volume Encyclopaedia of Sustainability, produced by the Berkshire Publishing Group, USA. Professor Spellerberg was a joint editor of Volume 6 and is lead editor of Volume 10 dealing with the Future of Sustainability.

Locally, Professor Spellerberg was a founding member of the Lincoln Envirotown Trust and he is a Patron of Te Ara Kakariki Greenway Canterbury Trust, a native plants project for creating a “green corridor” across the Canterbury Plains. In 1999 Professor Spellerberg and associates founded Lincoln University’s prestigious annual State of the Nation’s Environment lecture series.

Professor Emerita Alison Stewart came to Lincoln University from Auckland University in 1994 and was soon given leadership of the Microbial and Plant Sciences Group. In 1999 she was appointed to a personal professorship in plant pathology.

In 2002 Lincoln University won funding for a Centre of Excellence, the  National Centre for Advanced Bio-Protection Technologies (later abbreviated to the Bio-Protection Research Centre), and Professor Stewart was appointed its foundation Director. At the same time she was Director of Lincoln University’s Bio-Protection and Ecology Division.

Professor Stewart remained Director of the Bio-Protection Research Centre until the end of 2011, but she remained on the staff as a researcher and project leader for the Trichoderma Biological Control Group, focusing on product development and commercialisation.

In recognition of her outstanding achievements and contributions she was appointed Lincoln University’s inaugural Distinguished Professor of Plant Pathology from January 2012.

Born in Scotland and with a BSc (Hons) from the University of Glasgow and a PhD from the University of Stirling, Professor Stewart developed a specialisation in the ecology and control of fungal diseases of economically important vegetable crops, focusing on the development of non-chemical methods of control  -  the biological and cultural approaches of integrated disease management.

Professor Stewart and her team carried out prize-winning research on the use of beneficial fungi such as Trichoderma as the basis for non-chemical plant protection agents. The group she led successfully commercialised a number of Trichoderma-based bio-control products for the management of vegetable diseases.

Professor Stewart has published more than 300 refereed journal articles, books and conference papers and contributed to many professional societies, committees and advisory panels in the areas of biosecurity, biodiversity and bio-protection. She is a Fellow of the New Zealand Institute of Agricultural and Horticultural Sciences and of the Australasian Plant Pathology Society. In 2008 she won the MAFBNZ Biosecurity Award for Excellence. Directorships have included the Crown Research Institute Plant and Food Research, Better Boarder Security, and The Waite Institute, University of Adelaide.

 In 2009 she was appointed a Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to biology and in particular plant pathology. The award recognised her work in developing technology that reduces plant disease and stimulates plant growth and the discovery of new genetic pathways in Trichoderma biocontrol agents.

Professor Stewart has now left Lincoln University and is Chief Scientist with Marrone Bio Innovations, in Davis, California, USA, producers of bio pest management and plant health products.

(Note: The titles Professor Emeritus or Emerita – the masculine and feminine forms of the adjective – are internationally recognised honours for professors who retire after having given long and meritorious service to a university in a particular discipline.)