Bluegum research rewarded

Murdoch PhD student Aaron Maxwell won the CSIRO award for the best poster at the recent Australasian Plant Pathology Society Conference for his research into a disease of plantation eucalypts.

Mr Maxwell, a third year PhD student supervised by Professor Richard Oliver, Dr Giles Hardy and Associate Professor Bernie Dell, took a broad overview in his research of Mycosphaerella Leaf Blotch (MLB) which is threatening the emerging plantation industry of South-western Australia.

“I was looking at what organisms cause the disease, where they are from and the diversity of their population genetics,” said Mr Maxwell.

“This sort of information is crucial when developing new breeds of disease resistant trees.”

Mr Maxwell said although the disease slowed growth rather than killing the trees, it was a serious economic problem for the young plantation industry.

“MLB caused South African farmers to switch crops away from bluegum plantations in the 1930’s,” he said.

The poster was judged on the content and presentation of the research.