Professional Experience:
Raised on a dairy farm on King Island Tasmania, I entered the the Australian Defence Force at an early age, serving 20 years and qualifying as mechanical engineer. I am a graduate of the University of Queensland in Australia; I am a Honorary Professor of the Conservation Tillage Research Centre at China Agricultural University and Gansu Agricultural University, and an Adjunct Senior Research Fellow at the University of Southern Queensland, Sichuan Academy of Agricultural Sciences and Ningxia Academy of Agricultural and Forestry Sciences.
I previously led an integrated Conservation Agriculture (CA) research, training and extension program in China for the Global Sustainable Intensification Program at CIMMYT from 2012-2016 and until 2020 was the Chief of Party for a SME and rural development program for CIMMYT in Bangladesh. Prior I led a number of programs within irrigation, natural resource management, agricultural bio-systems and agricultural engineering in Northern Australia. In the greater Asiatic region I worked in the regeneration of degraded agricultural soils, ecosystem services and capacity building on farming systems for the majority of my career. I am an accomplished preceptor and mentor built on a career in agricultural, rural development, engineering, instrumentation, maintenance, logistics with CIMMYT, ACIAR, consultancies, international universities and the Australian Defence Force .
My work has been presented at 46 National and International conferences and in 30 peer reviewed articles, as well as comprehensive project and consultancy reports and numerous technical reports, fact sheets and case studies that include; spatial variability, proximal sensors, irrigation efficiency for agricultural industries (Turf, Dairy, Nursery, Sugarcane, Flower and Vegetable production systems) and soil amelioration under regenerative agriculture.