The CropLife Australia President's Awards for Extraordinary Contribution to the plant science industry recipients were recently announced as part of the official reception following the 2022 CropLife Members' Forum.
The reception was attended by a range of Government, parliamentary, public policy and industry special guests.
There were two award recipients this year. Dr Nina McCormick, current chair of CropLife Australia's biotechnology committee and regulatory affairs lead for Bayer Crop Science in Australia, and Dr Rohan Rainbow, managing director of Crop Protection Australia.
CropLife president Paul Luxton (L) and CEO Matthew Cossey (R)
with CropLife President’s Award winners, Nina McCormick and Rohan Rainbow.
Dr McCormick started her career in the plant science industry as a PhD student, developing GM carrots with virus resistance. After an accomplished career in developing novel molecular breeding and analytical techniques, she joined Monsanto (now Bayer) as the regulatory affairs manager.
She has been a long-serving member of CropLife's crop biotechnology committee and her collaborative approach to sharing knowledge has been integral to achieving better, science-based regulation for the agricultural sector and ensuring the success of GM crops in Australia.
Dr Rohan Rainbow has been a leader in Australian agriculture for his entire professional life. In addition to academic and scientific contributions, he has served as the GRDC senior plant health manager and held a substantial variety of consultative roles across the sector.
His extensive publications include development of an industry Code of Practice for Agricultural Field Machine Autonomy, Genetically Modified Organism Herbicide Tolerance Trait Review for the OGTR, and CropLife’s own ‘Official Australian reference guide for organic, synthetic and biological pesticides’.
