AN insight into the world of crop protectant development has spurred on a Tasmania’ university student’s desire to pursue a career in agricultural science.
University of Tasmania senior Maddie Francis returned from her work placement with Dow AgroSciences’ Waireka Global Discovery Research Station in New Zealand with a new zeal for agricultural science.
Ms Francis won the PICSE/Dow AgroSciences Travelling Scholarship Award for Excellence in Science, giving her a week’s work experience working alongside top international scientists, testing novel lead compounds and experiencing the product discovery phase for potential new fungicides.
She said she didn’t realise how intensive the process is to make sure a new molecule is safe and user friendly.
“It’s a huge and lengthy process to register a new product. The research at Waireka is used to determine whether a potential active ingredient has efficacy on a particular target disease, its mode of action and the dosage effect,” Ms Francis said.
“After the initial testing phase at Waireka, a molecule goes through many other phases until it reaches market. It can take up to 12 years before they have a commercial product.”
The week gave Ms Francis a new appreciation for the safety of agricultural chemicals after seeing the rigorous research and testing.
“It’s been a great opportunity to see the work that Dow AgroSciences is doing in New Zealand to ensure its fungicides are ready for the global market,” she said.
“After seeing how a real company actually operates, I would definitely consider a career in a private research company in the future.”
Her field station work was a long way from the classroom and textbooks but Ms Francis said assisting with the visual assessments of fungicide trials in wheat and barley crops was beneficial.
“This involved an intensive visual assessment of hundreds of individual plots to determine the level of crop damage caused by the pathogen,” she said.
“In addition to assisting with the field program I spent time with many different scientists learning about research in fungicides, herbicides and insecticides.”
Since winning the placement, Ms Francis has accepted a graduate regional cropping position at the Victorian Department of Environment and Primary Industries.
