Australian Society of Plant Scientists

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Australian Society of Plant Scientists
Plant Biology today, from a perspective of an
ecophysiologist
FORMERLY AUSTRALIAN SOCIETY OF PLANT
PHYSIOLOGISTS
http//www.asps.org.au/
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• A paper presented at the 13th meeting of the
  Federation of European Societies of Plant
  Physiology, held in Heraklion, Crete, by Hans
  Lambers, President of ASPS
• URLs and Office Holders updated in Feb 2008

hlambers_at_plants.uwa.edu.au Web site
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A bit of History of the Australian Society

• The ASPP was founded in 1958
• The Foundation President was Joe G. Wood, the
  first native-born Professor of Botany
• His successor was Sir Rutherford N. Robertson
• Many celebrities followed in their footsteps,
  including Lloyd Evans (71), Hal Hatch (79),
  John Pate (81), Michael Pitman (85), Jan
  Anderson (92), Barry Osmond (94) and Joe
  Wiskich (96)?
• In 2002, the name change to Australian Society of
  Plant Scientists became effective

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The Executive Council of ASPS
Executive President Professor David
Day(University of Sydney, Sydney)? Secretary Ass
oc Prof Robyn Overall(University of Sydney,
Sydney))? Treasurer Dr Tony Ashton(CSIRO-Plant
Industry, Canberra)? Public officer Dr Marilyn
Ball(RSBS ANU, Canberra)?
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Our Discipline Representatives
Genetics molecular biology Dr Patrick Finnegan
(U. Western Australian, Perth)? Cell biology Dr
David McCurdy (U. of Newcastle ,
Newcastle)? Plant-microbe interaction Dr Peer
Schenk (U. Queensland, Brisbane)? Whole plants
Assoc Prof Michael Tausz (U. Melbourne,
Creswick)? Plant development Dr Dennis Greer
(Charles Sturt Univ, Wagga Wagga)? Environmental
ecophysiology Global change Dr Oula Ghannoum
(U. Western Sydney, Hawkesbury, Sydney)? Plant
science education Dr Chris Ford (U. Adelaide,
Adelaide)? Student representative Crystal
Sweetman (Flinders Univ, Adelaide)?
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Some of our activities

• One junior award for excellence in research
  (prize)?
• Senior awards for excellence (lecture)?
• One award for excellence in teaching
• We are associated with Functional Plant Biology
  formerly Australian Journal of Plant Physiology
• An electronic Newsletter Phytogen (under the
  editorship of Andrew Netting and Helen Irving)?
• An annual meeting Combio
• Job alerts (email and website) http//www.asps.org
  .au/
• Produced a leading textbook Plants in Action

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Some statistics

• Main source of income from membership fees
• We have 527 paying members (2001)?
• 25 student members (reduced fee)?
• 30 of our budget spent on student travel grants
• Our annual meeting with other societies (Combio)
  provides additional income

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A personal perspective

• Plant biology has changed dramatically over the
  last few decades
• When I was a student at the University of
  Groningen (the Netherlands), in the 1970s, there
  were sharp boundaries between biochemistry,
  genetics, physiology and ecology
• The discipline molecular genetics was just
  emerging, but molecular biology was not a term
  that was used in those days

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A personal perspective

• I started lecturing as Professor of Ecophysiology
  in 1985, at Utrecht University (the Netherlands)?
• Then, the boundaries between physiology and
  molecular biology began to disappear
• When I wrote a textbook on Plant Physiological
  Ecology with Terry Chapin and Thijs Pons (1990s),
  I realised
• the absolute need to use molecular techniques in
  physiology and physiological ecology
• that molecular biologists could get off track, if
  there were no full appreciation of the whole
  plant context

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A personal perspective

• What is true for plant biology today, will be
  valid for plant biology in the next decades
• Molecular tools will further increase in
  importance, but an ecophysiological context must
  be provided to make the new knowledge relevant
• Many ecophysiological projects in my group at the
  University of Western Australia, in Perth,
  Australia, have a molecular component
• We need to use this integrated approach to
  further plant biology, and we should continue to
  break down existing barriers

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A general perspective

• Microarrays and gene sequencing have become
  common techniques
• Now it is back to the physiologist to work out
  function
• We need to devise ways of phenotyping that can be
  used for the reverse genetics approach

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From ASPP to ASPS
These changes in the field of plant sciences are
very much reflected in the change
from AUSTRALIAN SOCIETY OF PLANT
PHYSIOLOGISTS to Australian Society of Plant
Scientists
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An international perspective

• Australia has great strength in plant biology
• On ISIs list of highly cited authors in plant
  and animal sciences there are 7 plant scientists
  (out of 108) based in Australia
• For a population of approx. 18 million, this is
  very high
• For comparison (plant plus animal scientists)
• Denmark, Norway, Sweden and Panama 1
• Belgium and South Africa 2
• Switzerland and Japan 3
• Canada 6
• United Kingdom 9
• Germany 15
• USA 57

http//isihighlycited.com/home.cgi
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Looking at a bright future