The University of Western Australia

Professor Alan Robson

AM, BAgrSc Melb., PhD W.Aust., FTSE, FACE, FACEL, FAIAS, Hackett Professor of Agriculture

Prior to his appointment as Vice-Chancellor in 2004, Professor Alan Robson was Deputy Vice-Chancellor and Provost of The University of Western Australia from 1993. He has also held the positions of Foundation Director of the Cooperative Research Centre for Legumes in Mediterranean Agriculture (CLIMA), Dean of the Faculty of Agriculture, Head of the School of Agriculture, and Professor of Agriculture (Soil Science) at The University of Western Australia. He is currently the Hackett Professor of Agriculture.

Professor Robson was Deputy Chair of the Council of the National Library of Australia from 1998 until 2005. He is currently chair of the Group of Eight; a member of Universities Australia and a member of the Western Australian Science Council. In 2001, he chaired the Ministerial Taskforce on Structures, Services and Resources Supporting Government Schools. In 1987 Professor Robson was elected as a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering. Subsequently he was awarded the Australian Medal of Agriculture Science and elected as a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Agricultural Science. In 2003 Professor Robson was made a Member of the Order of Australia.

Alan Robson was the Foundation Chair of the Grains Legumes Research Council; Deputy Chair of the Australian Research Council's Research Grants Committee; a member of a three-person committee to review agriculture and related education in Australia; a member of the CSIRO Board (2003-2008); as well as a member of review panels to evaluate agricultural research in Denmark.

Professor Robson's major research interests are the effect of mineral nutrients and acidity on nodulation and nitrogen fixation by legumes, the role of vesicular arbuscular mycorrhizas in nutrient uptake by plants and the diagnosis of nutrient disorders in plants.