7 October 2002 CRI leader appointed professorial fellow

Leading biocontrol scientist Dr Stephen Goldson of AgResearch Ltd has been appointed a Professorial Fellow at Lincoln University with special responsibilities in the Plant Protection Group.

The appointment is additional to Dr Goldson's position as Science Leader of AgResearch's Biocontrol and Biosecurity Group, which operates at several sites throughout the country.

A graduate of Lincoln with a PhD in Entomology, Dr Goldson has worked in pest management his entire career, first with MAF and since 1992 with AgResearch.

Describing the Lincoln University appointment as an "opportunity to further promote pest management in New Zealand", Dr Goldson says he sees this country as an "ecological laboratory" in which significant land-based research is sometimes more straight forward than elsewhere because this country's productive ecosystems have relatively few species and are therefore "uncluttered" .

"There are huge opportunities to make significant contributions to plant protection and pest management in New Zealand because our farming systems are less complicated than in other parts of the world, so it's easier to understand the processes involved," he says.

Dr Goldson's contributions as a Professorial Fellow at Lincoln University will include postgraduate teaching and supervision and the development of new collaborative research initiatives.

Dr Goldson and the head of the University's Plant Protection Group, Professor Alison Stewart, are key drivers of the Centre of Research Excellence bid to establish a National Centre for Advanced Bio-Protection Technologies.

The proposed centre's University and CRI partners aim to develop new technologies for biosecurity and the environmentally friendly management of weeds, pests and diseases through innovative research and development.

Both agricultural and natural environments would benefit from the proposed centre's research, particularly through training the primary sector's future leaders and through incorporating Maori perspectives into this area of national priority.

"I can't think of any university better located for access to CRIs than Lincoln," says the new Professorial Fellow. "It's within walking distance of AgResearch, Crop & Food Research, Landcare and HortResearch and there's tremendous synergy between us all. In addition, many CRI staff members are, like myself, Lincoln graduates so we understand the University and it understands the role of the CRIs."

Ian Collins, Journalist, Lincoln University, Canterbury, New Zealand.