Soil-plant-microbe interactions from microscopy to field practice

Abstract

Alan David Robson, AM, CitWA This special issue recognizes the scientific contributions Professor Alan Robson has made to plant nutrition, plant-microbe interactions and soil science on the occasion of his retirement as Vice Chancellor of The University of Western Australia in December 2011. It comprises review articles and research papers on topics pertinent to the research interests of Alan Robson, including those of his postgraduate students, postdoctoral fellows, and colleagues. Alan Robson was born in 1945 in Melbourne, Australia. He studied agriculture at The University of Melbourne where he was awarded a Bachelor in Agricultural Science in 1965. He attended The University of Melbourne with the support of a Wheat Research Scholarship, and received the W.H. Ferguson Memorial Prize (Agricultural Geology), the James Cuming Prize (Agricultural Chemistry), Exhibition (Agricultural Bacteriology) and an Arthur Sims Scholarship (Animal Husbandry). He received a CSIRO Research Studentship and a Federal Wheat Research Council Studentship (postgraduate) in 1966 to support his postgraduate studies at The University of Western Australia. He was awarded a PhD from The University of Western Australia in 1969. Alan Robson’s PhD thesis Soil Factors Affecting the Distribution of Annual Medicago Species was supervised by Professor JF Loneragan, Dr AJ Millington and Dr JS Gladstones. This laid the foundation for his career-long interest in soil-plant-microbe interactions, especially in an agricultural context. He spent a short period as an agronomist in the Victorian Department of Agriculture, and commenced a lecturePlant Soil (2011) 348:1–5 DOI 10.1007/s11104-011-0969-6