Featured image above: 2016 WA Scientist of the Year, plant researcher Professor Kingsley Dixon (centre), with Premier Colin Barnett (right) and WA Chief Scientist, Professor Peter Klinken (left). Credit: Office of Science/The Scene Team
Professor Kingsley Dixon has been the Curtin University Professor at Kings Park and Botanic Garden since 2015, but his career in plant research stretches back decades.
He was the Director of Science at Kings Park for 32 years, leading its research efforts and building a team of more than 50 scientists and research students.
With his trademark approach of turning ‘science into practice’ he discovered that bushfire smoke triggers the germination of plants in Australia, as well as other parts of the world.
He later led an 11-year research project with the University of Western Australia and Murdoch University colleagues that isolated the secret ingredient that triggered the germination.
“This discovery has led to new horticultural products, and the improved restoration and conservation of many rare and threatened Australian plants that are unable to be conserved or propagated by other means,” the Premier and Science Minister Colin Barnett says.
In accepting the award, Dixon paid tribute to his colleagues over the years.
“The incredible verve and enthusiasm of all the young people who came through the Kings Park labs over the years just inspired me in the belief that WA is a great place, it’s the greatest place on earth to do the sort of science that we do,” he says.
Scores of WA’s top scientists and researchers attended the awards ceremony at the Kieran McNamara Conservation Science Centre in Kensington.
The late Professor Ian Ritchie AO was inducted into the WA Science Hall of Fame for his lifelong dedication to science.
Professor Ritchie was instrumental in setting up ChemCentre, as well as establishing the AJ Parker Cooperative Research Centre for Hydrometallurgy (extracting metals from their ores).
Other award winners
Woodside Early Career Scientist of the Year
Dr Scott Draper, a renewable energy engineer investigating wave and tidal energy, based at the School of Civil, Environmental and Mining Engineering (CEME) at UWA.
ExxonMobil Student Scientist of the Year
Christopher Brennan-Jones, a PhD candidate at UWA’s Ear Sciences Centre who led an international consortium assessing the reliability of automated hearing tests.
Chevron Science Engagement Initiative of the Year
Curtin University’s Fireballs in the Sky project, a citizen science initiative which uses digital cameras in the outback to track the fireballs created by meteorites to better understand the solar system.
You’ll find more details on the finalists in each of the four categories here.
– Tony Malkovic
This article was first published by Science Network Western Australia on 19 August 2016. Read the original article here.