Peacock appointed Australia's chief scientist

Pioneering CSIRO plant molecular geneticist Dr Jim Peacock, has been appointed Australia's chief scientist, in the wake of the resignation of Dr Robin Batterham after six years in the job.

Peacock, 68, who has remained active in research at CSIRO Plant Industry since his retirement after a record 23-year term chief of CSIRO's largest division, is in the final year of his four-year term as president of the Australian Academy of Science.

With his long-time CSIRO Plant Industry colleague Dr Liz Dennis, he was the inaugural winner of the Prime Minister's Science Prize in 2000 for their discovery of flowering locus C (FLC) the master gene that regulates flowering in plants.

Peacock went to the University of Sydney at the age of only 15, planning to become an economist, but to Australia's great fortune, found enrolments in economics had closed, and decided to studying biology instead. He was one of CSIRO's youngest-ever chief research scientists, and credited with initiating the plant molecular genetics revolution in Australia -- his research group cloned the world's first plant enzyme gene, the alcohol dehydrogenase gene, in 1983.

Although Peacock worked as a postdoctoral researcher in the US, he has spent virtually his entire research career in Australia. He is one of the world's most respected plant molecular geneticists, but has resisted numerousoffers of senior appointments in academia and industry overseas.

A passionate advocate and defender of the use of gene technology in agriculture, Peacock initiated a major research project to rescue Australia's cotton industry by applying integrated pest management, and developing pest-resistant GM cotton varieties. Australia now produces the world's highest quality cotton, and GM cultivars account for 80 per cent of all plantings.

Peacock has also been critical of the state governments for their timorousness in imposing moratoria on commercialisation of GM herbicide-tolerant canola and other GM crops in the face of community distrust of GM crops, fomented by anti-GM activists. He said the moratoria are costing Australia hundreds of millions of dollars in exports.

Like Batterham, a senior executive with mining company Rio Tinto, Peacock will also be a part-time chief scientist, advising the federal government on science issues just two days each week.

He is a strong defender of the virftues of basic research, of the type that saw CSIRO Plant Industry develop advanced molecular tools like "gene shears" ribozymes, and RNA interference (RNAi).

He has previously warned the federal government off the risks of focusing on short-term, wealth-generating applied research for industry, at the expense of longer-term fundamental research capable of spawning entire new industries.