Dr Greg A. Constable of Australia has been declared the winner of 2015 the International Cotton Advisory Committee (ICAC) researcher of the year, the committee said on its website.
The ICAC awards the researcher a shield, an honorarium of $1,000, a certificate, and the title “ICAC Cotton Researcher of the Year”.
The ICAC started the annual award in 2009. It is intended to raise the importance of research to the improvement of the cotton industry and to provide international recognition of exceptional achievements. Researchers from universities and public sector research organizations can apply for the award directly or through their heads of institutions. Researchers from all disciplines of cotton production research, including ginning, fibre quality and textile research, are eligible for the award. Only researchers from ICAC member countries are qualified for the award.
Dr Constable holds a Bachelor of Agricultural Science and a Masters of Agricultural Science from the University of Sydney, and a PhD from the Australian National University, Canberra. He is an agronomist, crop physiologist and plant breeder, allowing him to make significant contributions to the development of scientifically based farming approaches. He has added value to the biotech cotton varieties being developed in his program through the development of novel breeding strategies for increased yield and water use efficiency.
Dr Constable's career has focused on the application of agricultural science in the field. His detailed field growth analysis provided the fundamental understanding of agronomic responses. He has conducted pioneering work in basic physiology and agronomy, with innovative research into farming systems and eventually the development and application of new transgenic traits into the modern cotton cropping system.
