Internationally renowned academic to visit University

UQ's Professor Kaye Basford will visit the University to discuss plant breeding

An internationally renowned agriculture academic will visit USQ tomorrow (Thursday April 29) to present a seminar on large-scale plant breeding experiments.

The University’s ACSC will host Professor Kaye Basford, head of the School of Land, Crop and Food Sciences at the University of Queensland (UQ), who has won a number of awards for her work in the agriculture sector.

'Professor Basford’s research has focussed on developing appropriate multivariate methodology for the analysis and interpretation of genotypic adaptation in large-scale plant breeding experiments,' USQ Faculty of Sciences Associate Professor Shahjahan Khan said.

'She has considerable international experience working with scientists in the United States, Europe and Asia, including those in the Co-operative Group on International Agricultural Research which focuses on food production in the developing world.

'As well as this she was also the recipient of the 1998 Australian Medal for Agriculture from the Australian Institute of Agricultural Science and Technology.'

Professor Khan added that it was a coup for the University to attract such a high quality academic and researcher.

'She has published extensively in peer-reviewed literature, given invited presentations at national and international conferences and led or assisted in the training of over 20 research graduates.

'In 2006, Professor Basford was awarded a Fellowship with the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering for having developed statistical methods that are used world-wide to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of crop breeding programs.

'Professor Basford is at the interface between statistics and agricultural science, working with colleagues to determine the best way to extract knowledge and meaningful insight.'

The seminar will get underway in D303 tomorrow from 12pm till 1pm. For more information contact Professor Khan 07 4631 5532.

Contact Details:
Josh Ada, USQ Media, +61 7 4631 2559 or 0400 025 429