IBH Seminar: Australian Cereal Rust Control Program

Описание: The International Barley Hub is pleased to announce the next in the 2022 series of seminars, run by leading barley scientists and industry experts. This seminar will provide an overview of the Australian Cereal Rust Control Program and be presented by Prof Robert Parks of the University of Sydney.

Professor Robert Park completed a PhD in plant-pathology at La Trobe University in 1984 and has since worked on the pathology/ genetics of cereal rusts. He is an Alexander von Humboldt research award recipient, a Fulbright Senior Scholar, and was awarded the Friendship Award of China (2009), the NSW Science & Engineering Award for Excellence in Biological Sciences (2013), the Clarke Medal by the Royal Society of NSW (2015), and the Eureka Prize for Innovation in Leadership and Science (2020). He has worked extensively in international agriculture. He is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering and the Royal Society of NSW. Robert is Director of the Australian Cereal Rust Control Program, which leads research estimated to save the Australian grains industries over $1 billion per year. He has worked extensively in international agriculture and has published more than 200 peer-reviewed papers.

According to the WHO, about one third of the world’s population is well fed, one third underfed, and one third is starving; every year, 15 million children die of hunger. Plant diseases are a significant contributor to this imbalance, with conservative estimates of global losses to plant diseases in the order of 10%. Rust diseases of plants are caused by obligate fungal pathogens that have evolved in tight association with their host; those that attack cereals are among the most damaging and feared plant diseases. Cereal rust research at the University of Sydney began in 1921 and has continued uninterrupted since. Our research targets the use of genetics for the sustainable control of these damaging pathogens. This seminar will recap the story of rust research at USyd, discuss current global challenges in rust control, and present results from our most recent research on host and pathogen genomics.