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Count down to 60 years of ASPS – Rewarding excellence

27 August 2018
ASPS 60

Count down to 60 years of ASPS

We are in the process of writing a history of the Society planned for publication in 2019. This blog is a taste of the Society’s beginnings, but we are aware of gaps in our narrative.  Should anyone have other relevant information that you would be willing to share, we would be most appreciative.

Rewarding excellence, awards within our Society

Tina Offler and John Patrick, University of Newcastle

ASPP/ASPS recognises outstanding achievements of its membership in research and teaching through prestigious annual awards in addition to supporting student members with fellowships and accolades. The genesis of these awards and fellowships stretches across the life of ASPP/ASPS and, in particular, reflects a strong ongoing commitment to mentor and support early-mid career researchers.

Professor J (Joe) G Wood

Peter Goldacre stirring a brew of apple fruits to extract the cytokinins

The first steps along this pathway came soon after inception of the Society (1958) when the membership was shaken by two untimely deaths in their formative ranks – Professor J (Joe) G Wood (1959) and Dr Peter Goldacre (1960). JG Wood, the inaugural ASPP President is recognised as one of the three pioneers of Australian Plant Physiology (Ewart, Petrie and Wood – see Turner 1975). His successor to the ASPP Presidency, RN Robertson (affectionately known as “Sir Bob”), chaired the second ASPP AGM where it was agreed to honour JG Wood in an invited biennial memorial lecture. In introducing the JG Wood Memorial Lecture, successive ASPP/ASPS Presidents noted that the last PhD student to be supervised by Wood

Dr Peter Goldacre

was Dr (and then Professor Peter Brownell), a charming long-term ASPP/ASPS member who invariably cringed at this recognition in that ‘he may well have induced Wood’s fatal heart attack’. Again, under Sir Bob’s Presidency, the Peter Goldacre Award was established to commemorate Dr Peter Goldacre, an outstanding early career researcher, who at the time of his death (1960) had authored 13 papers, three of which appear in Nature. Initially, the recipient of the Peter Goldacre Award received a medal and a brief citation while an image of Peter Goldacre was projected stirring a large cauldron in a quest to isolate the cell division factor (cytokinin). Now the medal is augmented by a cash prize sponsored by Functional Plant Biology and a presentation by the recipient.

There then seems to have been an hiatus in establishing new awards, perhaps not for the want of trying. Does anyone have any information about the period from 1961 to 1997 that may throw some light on the intentions/aspirations of the serving Executive Committees in relation to awards?  Minutes of AGMs would be most useful.

The thread of expanding the portfolio of ASPS awards resurfaces in the 1990’s with the inaugural RN Robertson Lecture to honour Sir Bob’s considerable contributions and ongoing commitment to the Society presented in 1994. While humbled by this expression of recognition by the Society, Sir Bob was heard to reflect that ‘being present at a lecture in

RN Robertson taken next to the model he proposed for ATPase

one’s honour felt a bit like an out of body experience!’

In this period discussions were held about recognising the important role undergraduate teaching plays in promoting plant science and encouraging the next generation to consider the discipline as a career option. This was manifested in creating the ASPS-Teaching Award for excellence, innovation in, and/or contributions to, undergraduate teaching of plant science and is open to all members. The award was first conferred in 1997 together with the opportunity to present a paper on teaching plant science. It is comforting that it will be awarded in 2018 following a 4-year lapse.

Professor Jan Anderson

What has followed to complete the existing cohort of awards is the establishment of the ASPS-FPB Best Paper Award (2004) and most recently the Jan Anderson Award and Lecture (2018).  Both these awards are focused on early-mid career researchers, the latter restricted to female plant scientists in recognition of Jan’s stellar achievements in photosynthesis research and as a pioneering female scientist. These awards have been made possible by generous sponsorship; the ASPS-FPB Best Paper Award by Functional Plant Biology/CSIRO Publishing and the Jan Anderson Award by CSIRO Agriculture and Food, the ARC Centre of Excellence in Plant Energy Biology and the ARC Centre of Excellence for Translational Photosynthesis.

Following Sir Bob’s death in 2001, a fund was raised to support RN Robertson Travelling Fellowships in recognition of his sustained contribution to nurturing young plant scientists across four decades. The Fellowship provides graduate students and recent PhDs an opportunity to gain experience in another institution. The first Fellowship was awarded in 2006 and the accounts by recipients published in Phytogen attest to the value of this scheme.  One suspects that Sir Bob would be very satisfied with the outcomes.

 

Turner JS 1975.  The development of plant physiology in Australia  Records of the Australian Academy of Science, 3, 27-46.

 

 

 

 

 

Countdown to 60 years of ASPS – Thoughts from some of our leaders.

24 August 2018

Countdown to 60 years of ASPS – Thoughts from some of our leaders

19 August 2018
ASPS 60

Professor Sergey Shabala had his first exposure to the Australian plant science community nearly 23 years ago, while attending Combio in Sydney in 1995. Being raised under strict academic rules in the former USSR, I was probably the only person wearing a suit and a tie at that meeting (except perhaps a conference Chair who has removed it soon after leaving the podium). Equally shocking to me (in a cultural sense) was the first-named basis, and the fact that a PhD student can corner a Nobel Laureate and ask a question related to his work during the tea break. This was simply unthinkable in the system I was raised. Now, looking back at the beginning of my research career in Australia, I believe that this level of “liberalism” has become a catalyst that allowed me to develop my skills as an independent researcher and brought me to my current level. This view has been then reinforced by my own experience as a PhD supervisor and research mentor. Running a large (over 20 people) and truly multinational (11 nationalities) laboratory, I am dealing with various cultural aspects of research management on a daily basis. While the sample size is probably not big enough to draw an explicit conclusion, I have noticed that the sooner my students stop calling me Sir or Doctor and start using the first name, the quicker they integrate in the system, and develop their potential.

Over the same 23 years, I had a privilege to work with many of my colleagues (both in Australia and overseas); some of them became my role models and inspired me to become who I am now. The atmosphere of the friendship and openness and a true collaborative spirit has always been a hallmark of the Australian plant science community, and we need to ensure that these great traditions are maintained and passed to the future generation of Australian research leaders.

Another striking aspect of the Australian system was that our research is driven by curiosity, in a true spirit of the academic freedom. While we take it for granted, this is not true in many other places, especially in a corporate world. Therefore, I hope the spirit of a genuine research and an excitement of the moment discovering something novel, will prevail and overcome a pragmatism of the cost/benefit analysis and the recent corporate trends in academia. As a very least – I will do my best to convince my students and post-docs to share this view. Rephrasing one of my favourite books:

“I might be only a small pebble on a way of this trend but I will do my best to at least slow it down (if not reverse)”. Is there anyone to join me on this quest?

Professor Sergey Shabala, Head, Stress Physiology Laboratory, School of Land and Food, University of Tasmania

President, Australian Society of Plant Scientists

 

 

 

 

One of the first ComBio meetings Professor Steve Tyerman attended was in Brisbane, late seventies just after completing his Honours research, where he travelled the coast with Richard Storey surfing along the way; a great way to attend a conference. At these ASPS (then ASPP) conferences Steve enjoyed meeting the scientists, putting faces to names, being able to chat, and getting to know the real characters of plant science. He says “It was nice to find out that they had other interests and hobbies like normal people…It is important to make time for other interests, in my case sailing, and my family of course. These conferences also established long term friends and mentors that have stood the test of time.”

The conferences have given him some amazing ideas from other fields, on how to carry out new experiments, help with statistics and even putting ideas together in a new synthesis. Many fruitful collaborations were also established; “I don’t think I ever said no to trying out something new to me with a new collaborator, it’s a weakness of mine”. These collaborations have sometimes developed into career long research hi-lights. The atmosphere has always been open to learning about new ways to tackle problems. One of his best papers came from ASPS and ComBio ideas. He looks back on attending conferences with fond memories, the mentoring, and researchers have always been kind when asking questions.

A mentor moment for Steve was seeing Rana Munns speak for the first time (“too long ago to put on a date”) and then being able to ask her a rather esoteric question about volumetric elastic modulus. “Never be afraid of asking questions!” One funny mistake Steve remembers of himself under the influence of pain killers and the flu, was talking obliviously; twice as long as his allocated time in a 15 min slot. He eventually, probably longer than many, managed to somewhat hone his presentations through experiences gained from ASPS conferences.

Steve believes strongly in the role of ASPS influencing researchers, students, industry and politicians. Students have to be nurtured to counter anti-science which is appearing in the general community and amongst our politicians. It is important to encourage a high level of knowledge and education in our society. An idea is to have primary and secondary teachers attending meetings so they can pass on the excitement of plant science to high school students and that “plants drive our livelihood”. Maybe then we will get more students coming to University who don’t think plants are boring.

A large chunk of Steve’s research is industry focussed, as Chair of Viticulture at the University of Adelaide. Recently his laboratory at the Waite Campus of Adelaide University, reported on how hypoxia develops in wine grape berries and that the berries “breathe” through lenticels on the berry stem, that if blocked can accelerate cell death in the berry. Implications for the Wine industry are to harvest before berry shrivel alleviating a problem where yields drop by 30 percent quickly and the high sugar concentration becomes problematic in the ferments. But now as Emeritus Professor he also looks forward to getting back to his patch-clamp rig and electrophysiology to tie up a few loose ends in basic transport research on his favourite proteins; aquaporin’s.

Professor Steve Tyerman, Chair of Viticulture at the University of Adelaide and Kathy Soole, Associate Professor Biochemistry and Biotechnology, College of Science and Engineering, Flinders University

Past President (2003-2007) and President Elect respectively,  Australian Society of Plant Scientists

 

Kathleen (Kathy) Soole has been a member of the Australian Society of Plant Scientists since she was an Honours student and during her PhD studies at the University of Adelaide in the Botany Department, under the supervision of Prof. Joe Wiskich. Joe was a very active member of the Society during his career and encouraged his students to participate as well. He has been a major influence for Kathy throughout her career in science and through Joe and ASPS she had the honour to meet Bob Robertson, an eminent scientist and member of the Society as well as many other high profile plant scientists. It was very awe inspiring as a young student. When Joe was president, Kathy was Honorary Treasurer, a role she continued to hold for quite a few years (1998-2004). Impressively her postdoctoral research at the University of Newcastle –upon-Tyne and to this day as an Associate Professor at Flinders University, encompasses both plant and animal biochemistry. I catch her in between students for lunch in the newly refurbished Flinders University Café. This semester she is teaching Agricultural Biotechnology and she enjoys teaching as her students seem inspired.

Kathy feels very passionately about the society remaining a community where students and scientists are encouraged to take up and maintain their membership. She is proud of how the society actively fosters support for students and scientists. The society is the very basis of networking and is where we can look forward to seeing each other every year and she says “great friends have been made”.

When ComBio becomes biennial, having biennial Australian Society of Plant scientist conferences will further improve interactions between scientists and students. She envisions regional centres with lots of scientific energy will be ideal hosts. The society will also facilitate an international or national prominent scientist to talk at several meetings throughout Australia. This will provide great momentum for elevating plant science higher on national and global decision making agendas.

As a community of plant scientists we have to:

  1. Communicate to the wider community to realise the looming food crisis.
  2. Alleviate this crisis by delivering more efficient food.
  3. Strike a balance between ecology, biodiversity and food production. There needs to be a good balance between ecological biodiversity and food production through better communication between these areas of plant biology; Kathy recently attended a presentation at Flinders earlier this year by Prof. Andrew Balmford, a renowned ecologist from the UK was speaking about the balance between ecology and agriculture and moving ahead together for the benefit of the world.
  4. Educate the wider community about the benefit of plants to society, for example, try to give a balanced view about the use of genetically modified plants.
  5. Be at the forefront of coping and adapting to climate change.
  6. Up the numbers of members in the society.
  7. Promote science as a career among young people, especially young women and show them that it is possible to have life balance and a family life.

 

At Flinders, Kathy has a laboratory full of students researching the role of respiration and oxidative stress in the growth of arable crops, moving beyond Arabidopsis. Recently, she has joined labs with other long-term ASPS members; Prof. David Day and Assoc. Prof. Colin Jenkins, and it has proved to be a positive experience. It has enabled an expansion of recent activities into carbohydrate metabolism and legume research.

Our President Elect is exemplified by her important, current and fascinating research. She looks forward to the up-coming meeting and speaking to students and scientists at the poster sessions in Sydney, see you soon.

Count down to 60 years of ASPS

19 August 2018

ASPS 60

Count down to 60 years of ASPS

Dear ASPS members,

With about 6 weeks until ComBio 2018, make sure you check the website for a new post to Phytogen each Monday. This beginning post has been emailed to start you off and can be viewed at the ASPS website (https://www.asps.org.au/)

The posts will be :

Tuesday 14th August — The beginning

Monday 20th August — Thoughts from some of our leaders

Monday 27th August — Rewarding excellence

Monday 3rd September — Growing up within ASPS

Monday 10th September — Plants in Action

Monday 17th September — Why we need more women

We hope you will enjoy reading, hint: after this coming Monday’s post, you will be able to like on our Society’s Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/ASPSozplants) post a pebble if you like and that will feed through to twitter also,

Kind Regards, the ASPS Website & Communications Sub-Committee (WSCS).

ASPP/ASPS  —  The beginning

We are in the process of writing a history of the Society planned for publication in 2019. This blog is a taste of the Society’s beginnings, but we are aware of gaps in our narrative.  Should anyone have other relevant information that you would be willing to share, we would be most appreciative.

Tina Offler and John Patrick, University of Newcastle

The mid-1940s onward witnessed a burgeoning growth in plant physiology research spread across CSIRO, State Departments of Agriculture and Universities. It was within this environment that Bob Robertson (to become Sir Rutherford Roberson and affectionately referred to as Sir Bob), in 1957, proposed the formation of ASPP to a group of leading national-based plant physiologists (Neales 1994). The group agreed to convene a one-day meeting linked with the programmed Adelaide Australian and New Zealand Association for the Advancement of Science (ANZAAS) conference. The one-day event was held on August 19, 1958 at which 12 papers were presented by GA Atkins, Peter Brownell, Martin Canny, Jack Dainty, Alex Hope, Ned Krefford, Nick Marinos, JD McLean, John Pate, Dugald Paton, Bob Williams and Harold Woolhouse. At the inaugural General Meeting held that afternoon, chaired by Sir Bob, the ASPP Constitution was approved along with the election of Lance May (Adelaide) as Honorary Secretary, Les Paleg (Adelaide) as Honorary Treasurer and Joseph Garnett Wood (Adelaide) as the first President. There seems to be some disparity in reports of the number of delegates attending the meeting with 64 and 69 reported and the original record of attendees having 66 signatures. However, what is not in dispute is that many of the signatures on these fading sheets of paper are of those you will recognise for their significant contributions to Australian Plant Science and to our society. To name but a few: Bob Robertson, John Pate, Alan Walker, Lloyd Evans, Peter Brownell, Hal Hatch, Harold Woolhouse, Martin Canny and so it goes on and on…… 

 

The CSIRO/Botany School Unit, headed by Bob Robertson, and housed in the Sydney University Botany Department was the core from which ASPP grew and expanded. Bob Robertson’s group comprised a dozen or so young plant physiologists who were to make major advances in our science, including Hal Hatch, Alex Hope, Jack Dainty (from Edinburg, UK), John Pate, Carrick Chambers, Don and Heather Adamson, John (F) and Donella Turner. Bob brought 14 of its members to Adelaide for the Inaugural Meeting, and it wasn’t easy to get there!!  In his “recollections” written for the 50th anniversary of the society, Martin Canny recounts that Hal Hatch said to me (Martin),

“Tell them how different it was, how difficult to get from Sydney to Adelaide.”

 

Apparently, in order to attend the Adelaide meeting he (Hal) had taken two days in trains, overnight from Sydney to Melbourne, with a midnight change at Albury to accommodate a shift in rail gauge from 4 feet 8 1/2 inches (New South Wales) to the Victorian line gauge of 5 feet 3 inches, then another overnight trip to Adelaide, with yet another change in railway gauge down to 3 feet 6 inches at the Victorian/South Australian boarder. And, there are other similar stories.

 

In the following year, the plant physiology community was saddened by the untimely death of JG  (Joe) Wood (1900 -1959) just prior to the second meeting of ASPP convened in Sydney across three days. Sir Bob was elected as the second ASPP President, a position he served in until 1962.  ASPP/ASPS has honoured these two foundation presidents for many years through the JG Wood and Robertson Lectures, presented by invitation biennially at ASPP/ComBio meetings in alternate years.  Also, amongst the attendees at the inaugural meeting in Adelaide was a talented young plant scientist, Dr Peter Goldacre who tragically died in 1960 before being able to fulfil his full research potential. It is in his honour that the prestigious Peter Goldacre Award has been awarded to an outstanding early career plant scientist each year since 1965.

 

 

 

Neales Tom (1994). Our Society; An Historical Perspective. An early history of the Australian Society of Plant Physiologists. ASPP Membership Directory and reproduced (with permission) in Phytogen 11(2), 11-18.

Countdown to 60 years of ASPS – Thoughts from some of our leaders

19 August 2018
ASPS 60

Professor Sergey Shabala had his first exposure to the Australian plant science community nearly 23 years ago, while attending Combio in Sydney in 1995. Being raised under strict academic rules in the former USSR, I was probably the only person wearing a suit and a tie at that meeting (except perhaps a conference Chair who has removed it soon after leaving the podium). Equally shocking to me (in a cultural sense) was the first-named basis, and the fact that a PhD student can corner a Nobel Laureate and ask a question related to his work during the tea break. This was simply unthinkable in the system I was raised. Now, looking back at the beginning of my research career in Australia, I believe that this level of “liberalism” has become a catalyst that allowed me to develop my skills as an independent researcher and brought me to my current level. This view has been then reinforced by my own experience as a PhD supervisor and research mentor. Running a large (over 20 people) and truly multinational (11 nationalities) laboratory, I am dealing with various cultural aspects of research management on a daily basis. While the sample size is probably not big enough to draw an explicit conclusion, I have noticed that the sooner my students stop calling me Sir or Doctor and start using the first name, the quicker they integrate in the system, and develop their potential.

Over the same 23 years, I had a privilege to work with many of my colleagues (both in Australia and overseas); some of them became my role models and inspired me to become who I am now. The atmosphere of the friendship and openness and a true collaborative spirit has always been a hallmark of the Australian plant science community, and we need to ensure that these great traditions are maintained and passed to the future generation of Australian research leaders.

Another striking aspect of the Australian system was that our research is driven by curiosity, in a true spirit of the academic freedom. While we take it for granted, this is not true in many other places, especially in a corporate world. Therefore, I hope the spirit of a genuine research and an excitement of the moment discovering something novel, will prevail and overcome a pragmatism of the cost/benefit analysis and the recent corporate trends in academia. As a very least – I will do my best to convince my students and post-docs to share this view. Rephrasing one of my favourite books:

“I might be only a small pebble on a way of this trend but I will do my best to at least slow it down (if not reverse)”. Is there anyone to join me on this quest?

Professor Sergey Shabala, Head, Stress Physiology Laboratory, School of Land and Food, University of Tasmania

President, Australian Society of Plant Scientists

 

 

 

 

One of the first ComBio meetings Professor Steve Tyerman attended was in Brisbane, late seventies just after completing his Honours research, where he travelled the coast with Richard Storey surfing along the way; a great way to attend a conference. At these ASPS (then ASPP) conferences Steve enjoyed meeting the scientists, putting faces to names, being able to chat, and getting to know the real characters of plant science. He says “It was nice to find out that they had other interests and hobbies like normal people…It is important to make time for other interests, in my case sailing, and my family of course. These conferences also established long term friends and mentors that have stood the test of time.”

The conferences have given him some amazing ideas from other fields, on how to carry out new experiments, help with statistics and even putting ideas together in a new synthesis. Many fruitful collaborations were also established; “I don’t think I ever said no to trying out something new to me with a new collaborator, it’s a weakness of mine”. These collaborations have sometimes developed into career long research hi-lights. The atmosphere has always been open to learning about new ways to tackle problems. One of his best papers came from ASPS and ComBio ideas. He looks back on attending conferences with fond memories, the mentoring, and researchers have always been kind when asking questions.

A mentor moment for Steve was seeing Rana Munns speak for the first time (“too long ago to put on a date”) and then being able to ask her a rather esoteric question about volumetric elastic modulus. “Never be afraid of asking questions!” One funny mistake Steve remembers of himself under the influence of pain killers and the flu, was talking obliviously; twice as long as his allocated time in a 15 min slot. He eventually, probably longer than many, managed to somewhat hone his presentations through experiences gained from ASPS conferences.

Steve believes strongly in the role of ASPS influencing researchers, students, industry and politicians. Students have to be nurtured to counter anti-science which is appearing in the general community and amongst our politicians. It is important to encourage a high level of knowledge and education in our society. An idea is to have primary and secondary teachers attending meetings so they can pass on the excitement of plant science to high school students and that “plants drive our livelihood”. Maybe then we will get more students coming to University who don’t think plants are boring.

A large chunk of Steve’s research is industry focussed, as Chair of Viticulture at the University of Adelaide. Recently his laboratory at the Waite Campus of Adelaide University, reported on how hypoxia develops in wine grape berries and that the berries “breathe” through lenticels on the berry stem, that if blocked can accelerate cell death in the berry. Implications for the Wine industry are to harvest before berry shrivel alleviating a problem where yields drop by 30 percent quickly and the high sugar concentration becomes problematic in the ferments. But now as Emeritus Professor he also looks forward to getting back to his patch-clamp rig and electrophysiology to tie up a few loose ends in basic transport research on his favourite proteins; aquaporin’s.

Professor Steve Tyerman, Chair of Viticulture at the University of Adelaide and Kathy Soole, Associate Professor Biochemistry and Biotechnology, College of Science and Engineering, Flinders University

Past President (2003-2007) and President Elect respectively,  Australian Society of Plant Scientists

 

Kathleen (Kathy) Soole has been a member of the Australian Society of Plant Scientists since she was an Honours student and during her PhD studies at the University of Adelaide in the Botany Department, under the supervision of Prof. Joe Wiskich. Joe was a very active member of the Society during his career and encouraged his students to participate as well. He has been a major influence for Kathy throughout her career in science and through Joe and ASPS she had the honour to meet Bob Robertson, an eminent scientist and member of the Society as well as many other high profile plant scientists. It was very awe inspiring as a young student. When Joe was president, Kathy was Honorary Treasurer, a role she continued to hold for quite a few years (1998-2004). Impressively her postdoctoral research at the University of Newcastle –upon-Tyne and to this day as an Associate Professor at Flinders University, encompasses both plant and animal biochemistry. I catch her in between students for lunch in the newly refurbished Flinders University Café. This semester she is teaching Agricultural Biotechnology and she enjoys teaching as her students seem inspired.

Kathy feels very passionately about the society remaining a community where students and scientists are encouraged to take up and maintain their membership. She is proud of how the society actively fosters support for students and scientists. The society is the very basis of networking and is where we can look forward to seeing each other every year and she says “great friends have been made”.

When ComBio becomes biennial, having biennial Australian Society of Plant scientist conferences will further improve interactions between scientists and students. She envisions regional centres with lots of scientific energy will be ideal hosts. The society will also facilitate an international or national prominent scientist to talk at several meetings throughout Australia. This will provide great momentum for elevating plant science higher on national and global decision making agendas.

As a community of plant scientists we have to:

  1. Communicate to the wider community to realise the looming food crisis.
  2. Alleviate this crisis by delivering more efficient food.
  3. Strike a balance between ecology, biodiversity and food production. There needs to be a good balance between ecological biodiversity and food production through better communication between these areas of plant biology; Kathy recently attended a presentation at Flinders earlier this year by Prof. Andrew Balmford, a renowned ecologist from the UK was speaking about the balance between ecology and agriculture and moving ahead together for the benefit of the world.
  4. Educate the wider community about the benefit of plants to society, for example, try to give a balanced view about the use of genetically modified plants.
  5. Be at the forefront of coping and adapting to climate change.
  6. Up the numbers of members in the society.
  7. Promote science as a career among young people, especially young women and show them that it is possible to have life balance and a family life.

 

At Flinders, Kathy has a laboratory full of students researching the role of respiration and oxidative stress in the growth of arable crops, moving beyond Arabidopsis. Recently, she has joined labs with other long-term ASPS members; Prof. David Day and Assoc. Prof. Colin Jenkins, and it has proved to be a positive experience. It has enabled an expansion of recent activities into carbohydrate metabolism and legume research.

Our President Elect is exemplified by her important, current and fascinating research. She looks forward to the up-coming meeting and speaking to students and scientists at the poster sessions in Sydney, see you soon.

Count down to 60 years of ASPS – The beginning

14 August 2018
ASPS 60

Count down to 60 years of ASPS

Dear ASPS members,

with about 6 weeks until ComBio 2018, make sure you check the website for a new post to Phytogen each Monday. This beginning post has been emailed to start you off and will be on our website after that (https://www.asps.org.au/)

The posts will be :

Tuesday 14th August — The beginning

Monday 20th August — Thoughts from some of our leaders

Monday 27th August — Rewarding excellence

Monday 3rd September — Growing up within ASPS

Monday 10th September — Plants in Action

Monday 17th September — Why we need more women

we hope you will enjoy reading, hint: after this coming Monday’s post, you will be able to like on our Societies facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/ASPSozplants) post a pebble if you like and that will feed through to twitter also, Kind Regards, the ASPS Website & Communications Sub-Committee (WSCS).

ASPP/ASPS  —  The beginning

We are in the process of writing a history of the Society planned for publication in 2019. This blog is a taste of the Society’s beginnings, but we are aware of gaps in our narrative.  Should anyone have other relevant information that you would be willing to share, we would be most appreciative.

Tina Offler and John Patrick, University of Newcastle

The mid-1940s onward witnessed a burgeoning growth in plant physiology research spread across CSIRO, State Departments of Agriculture and Universities. It was within this environment that Bob Robertson (to become Sir Rutherford Roberson and affectionately referred to as Sir Bob), in 1957, proposed the formation of ASPP to a group of leading national-based plant physiologists (Neales 1994). The group agreed to convene a one-day meeting linked with the programmed Adelaide Australian and New Zealand Association for the Advancement of Science (ANZAAS) conference. The one-day event was held on August 19, 1958 at which 12 papers were presented by GA Atkins, Peter Brownell, Martin Canny, Jack Dainty, Alex Hope, Ned Krefford, Nick Marinos, JD McLean, John Pate, Dugald Paton, Bob Williams and Harold Woolhouse. At the inaugural General Meeting held that afternoon, chaired by Sir Bob, the ASPP Constitution was approved along with the election of Lance May (Adelaide) as Honorary Secretary, Les Paleg (Adelaide) as Honorary Treasurer and Joseph Garnett Wood (Adelaide) as the first President. There seems to be some disparity in reports of the number of delegates attending the meeting with 64 and 69 reported and the original record of attendees having 66 signatures. However, what is not in dispute is that many of the signatures on these fading sheets of paper are of those you will recognise for their significant contributions to Australian Plant Science and to our society. To name but a few: Bob Robertson, John Pate, Alan Walker, Lloyd Evans, Peter Brownell, Hal Hatch, Harold Woolhouse, Martin Canny and so it goes on and on…… 

 

The CSIRO/Botany School Unit, headed by Bob Robertson, and housed in the Sydney University Botany Department was the core from which ASPP grew and expanded. Bob Robertson’s group comprised a dozen or so young plant physiologists who were to make major advances in our science, including Hal Hatch, Alex Hope, Jack Dainty (from Edinburg, UK), John Pate, Carrick Chambers, Don and Heather Adamson, John (F) and Donella Turner. Bob brought 14 of its members to Adelaide for the Inaugural Meeting, and it wasn’t easy to get there!!  In his “recollections” written for the 50th anniversary of the society, Martin Canny recounts that Hal Hatch said to me (Martin),

“Tell them how different it was, how difficult to get from Sydney to Adelaide.”

 

Apparently, in order to attend the Adelaide meeting he (Hal) had taken two days in trains, overnight from Sydney to Melbourne, with a midnight change at Albury to accommodate a shift in rail gauge from 4 feet 8 1/2 inches (New South Wales) to the Victorian line gauge of 5 feet 3 inches, then another overnight trip to Adelaide, with yet another change in railway gauge down to 3 feet 6 inches at the Victorian/South Australian boarder. And, there are other similar stories.

 

In the following year, the plant physiology community was saddened by the untimely death of JG  (Joe) Wood (1900 -1959) just prior to the second meeting of ASPP convened in Sydney across three days. Sir Bob was elected as the second ASPP President, a position he served in until 1962.  ASPP/ASPS has honoured these two foundation presidents for many years through the JG Wood and Robertson Lectures, presented by invitation biennially at ASPP/ComBio meetings in alternate years.  Also, amongst the attendees at the inaugural meeting in Adelaide was a talented young plant scientist, Dr Peter Goldacre who tragically died in 1960 before being able to fulfil his full research potential. It is in his honour that the prestigious Peter Goldacre Award has been awarded to an outstanding early career plant scientist each year since 1965.

 

 

 

Neales Tom (1994). Our Society; An Historical Perspective. An early history of the Australian Society of Plant Physiologists. ASPP Membership Directory and reproduced (with permission) in Phytogen 11(2), 11-18.

 

ASPS dinner at ComBio2018

12 August 2018

ASPS dinner at ComBio2018

Dear ASPS member,

We hope to see you at the coming ComBio2018 in our spectacular city of Sydney.

If so, you might be interested to attend a dinner where you can discuss collaborative research and networking sitting with fellow scientists while enjoying magnificent Darling Harbour views with delicious food at a very affordable price!

We are organising this year’s ASPS dinner which will be held on Tuesday, 25th September at Zaaffran Restaurant. (https://www.zaaffran.com/). You can sit and enjoy this harbourside restaurant where you will be amused by a marvellous Darling Harbour night view. It just a three minute harbour side walk from the ComBio2018 conference centre.   It is well worth a visit, so come along to refresh your mind after a long day full of scientific sessions and enjoy some good food and company.

This year the menu will be a three course Indian dinner with open bar with juice, soft drinks, red and white wine. We are offering you a high standard dinner at a very reasonable price, thanks to ASPS for the subsidy. The cost per ticket will be:

  • Students: $30
  • Academics and guests: $60

You can book your spot by emailing Kamal (kamal.uddin@sydney.edu.au) who will reply to you shortly, with the payment details and confirm your reservation after payment. Don’t forget to mention any dietary requirement in your email during booking.

For catering purposes we need to know the numbers in advance. So, if you really want to attend the ASPS dinner, please reserve your place and make your payment before Friday, 14th September.

We only have a limited number of tickets, so please don’t wait for the last moment to book your spot.

We looking forward to see you all at ComBio2018.

 

Warm regards,

ASPS Dinner Organising Committee

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