Centre Scientific Advisory Board (SAB)

Dr Wayne Gerlach

Dr Gerlach is a former Executive Director - Biotechnology at Johnson & Johnson Research Pty Limited in Sydney. He has key interests in molecular genetics and natural product chemistries, with a focus on pharmaceutical applications.
Earlier, he was Research Director of the laboratory program at Johnson & Johnson Research from 1992 to 2002, building it from start-up to a position as the largest research investment of a major healthcare corporation in Australia. Before that, he was a Program Leader and Senior Principal Research Scientist at CSIRO Division of Plant Industry in Canberra.
Dr Gerlach has a PhD in Genetics from The University of Adelaide and a Diploma in Management Development from Harvard Business School. In 1990 he was awarded the CSIRO Rivett Medal for research, and in 1992 was awarded the Lemberg Medal of the Australian Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. He has also held Rothmans, Harkness and Queen Elizabeth II Fellowships, and has held appointments in Cambridge, England, and at the University of California at Davis.

Professor Christopher Leaver CBE, ARCS, DIC, FRS, FRSE

Prof. Leaver is Emeritus Professor of Plant Science University of Oxford and was Sibthorpian Professor of Plant Science and Head of Department 1990-2007. Following a BSc then PhD in Plant Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at London's Imperial College, Chris Leaver was a Fulbright Scholar at Purdue University, USA. From 1969 to 1990 he rose from Lecturer to Professor of Plant Molecular Biology at University of Edinburgh, Scotland.
He is the recipient of numerous awards and prizes, including: The Tate and Lyle Award from the Phytochemical Society of Europe in 198.A Humboldt Prize in 1997.Raine Medical Research Foundation Visiting Professor, The University of Western Australia 2001, and Visiting Professor University of Western Australia since 2002.
He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1986, Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 1987, a member of Academia Europaea in 1988, a member of the European Molecular Biology Organisation in 1982, serving on its Council 1991-97, and as its Chairman 1996-97.Chair of the Executive Committee of the UK Biochemical Society 2005-2007.
He was awarded the CBE for services to plant sciences in the 2000 Queen's New Year's Honours. Elected a Corresponding member of the American Society of Plant Biologists 2003.
Prof. Leaver was a Director, Oxford University Isis Innovations Ltd. from 1996-2002. His research interests include the molecular, biochemical and cellular basis of plant development, the regulation of mitochondrial biogenesis and programmed cell death in plants. He has a strong interest in the public understanding of science and has been actively involved in the current debate on genetically modified crops.

Professor Ian W. Dawes BSc (Hons I, UNSW, 1965) DPhil (Oxon, 1969) FAA

Professor Dawes has a BSc from the University of New South Wales, a DPhil from the University of Oxford in the UK and is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science. He is interested in the regulation of gene expression during cell development and the response to stress or environmental changes. He has used biochemical, genetic and genomic approaches to study cellular responses to oxidative stress, nutritional changes, ageing, how cells respond to anti-tumour drugs, how cells regulate metabolic networks, and how control systems interact with each other.
He is an editor of the journal FEMS Yeast Research and a member of the editorial boards of Yeast and the Journal of Microbiology. He has been a Board Member of the Victor Chang Cardiac Research Institute and of the Australian Proteomic Analytical Facility, Chairman of the International Yeast Genetics and Molecular Biology Community and past President of the Lorne Genome Conference and the Society for Free Radical Research (Australasia).

Professor Adrienne E Clarke AC, FAA, FTSE

Professor Adrienne Clarke AC is Laureate Professor at The University of Melbourne. She is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science; the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering, and is a Foreign Member of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Professor Clarke is a Director of Hexima Limited and has served as a Director of several public companies including most recently Fisher & Paykel Healthcare Limited and Woolworths Limited. She served as Chairman of the CSIRO Board (1991-1996), Lieutenant Governor of Victoria (1997-2000) and Ambassador for Biotechnology for Victoria (2001-2004). She has also served on many Federal and State Government Councils and Advisory Boards on matters relating to research and development.

Dr Elizabeth S. Dennis

Professor Dennis is one of the world's leading plant molecular biologists. She is CSIRO Fellow researching gene expression and plant development, improving the knowledge-base in strategic plant research. Her work has led to tangible outcomes in sectors of Australian agriculture.

Liz's scientific excellence is acknowledged through numerous awards:

• election as a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering (1988)
• the Pharmacia LKB/Biotechnology Medal of the Australian Biochemical Society for contributions to Biochemical Research (1999)
• election as a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science (1995)
• the Avon Spirit of Achievement Award (1997)
• the Lemberg Medal, for distinguished contributions to biochemistry (1998)
• the inaugural Prime Minister's Prize for Science (2000), together with Dr Jim Peacock, for research in plant molecular biology, particularly for their work on the initiation of flowering.

Professor Robert Last

Michigan State University since 2004, Professor in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology and Plant Biology. Program Director, Plant Genome Research, US National Science Foundation 2003-2004, Director of Functional Genomics Research at Cereon Genomics and Monsanto Co. 1998-2002. Professor at the Boyce Thompson Institute for Plant Research at Cornell University for 9 years, and visiting scientist at Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology, Germany 2002-2003.
Dr Last's contributions to science and outreach have been recognized in various ways including selection as: Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (2009) Fellow of the American Society of Plant Biologists (2009) Monsanto Fellow (2001) National Science Foundation Presidential Young Investigator Award (1990). He is on the Board of Directors, iPlant Cyberinfrastructure Collaborative (Chair from 2007-2009) and serves on the Scientific Advisory Board of the Canadian National Research Council funded PhytoMetaSyn project. He is Editor in Chief of The Arabidopsis Book, and served on the editorial board of Plant Physiology for ten years, including as Associate Editor from 1999-2007. He has served on the editorial board of Current Opinions in Plant Biology since 1997.

Clinical Professor Fiona Wood, FRCS, FRACS, AM

Professor Wood is currently Director of the Western Australian Burns Service. She is the Chairman of the McComb Research Foundation, established in 1999 with scientist Marie Stoner. She is also co-founder and Director of Clinical Cell Culture (C3), a skin tissue engineering company, now known as Avita Medical In addition, she is a consultant plastic surgeon and Director of the Burns service of WA at Royal Perth and Princess Margaret Hospitals, Perth.
Professor Wood's research through the McComb Foundation involves several collaborative research projects focused on the multidisciplinary clinical and scientific team approach to the treatment of burn injury. The ultimate aim is scar-less healing to ensure the quality of the outcome is worth the pain of survival.
Professor Wood was named Western Australian of the Year for 2004, and was nominated as a National Living Treasure and Australian Citizen of the Year in 2005. In 2005 she received the honour of being named Australian of the Year, and was elected as a Member in the Order of Australia (AM).

Professor Richard P. Oliver

Professor Richard Oliver is Professor of Physiological and Molecular Plant Pathology at Murdoch University and has accepted a position of Professor of Agriculture at Curtin University from July 2010. Formerly he was Professor of Physiology of the Carlsberg Laboratory. He is the director of the Australian Centre fir Necrotrophic Fungal Pathogens and is also deputy chairman of the Western panel of the Australian Grains Research and Development Corporation. He has also served on the ARC College of Experts.
Trained as a plant biochemist, his career at UEA Norwich (1984 to 1996), the Carlsberg Laboratory (1996-2000) Zeneca and now the ACNFP has resulted in molecular tools that have revealed details of the molecular interactions between plants and then fungal pathogens. He has published more than 130 papers and delivered tools to Australian plant breeders.