Leading scientist calls time on career

BY ABBY WALTER

Afamiliar face at Agriculture

Victoria’s Grains Innovation Park in Horsham is continuing to support the future of agricultural science despite his retirement.

Joe Panozzo was a researcher for more than 40 years with Agriculture

Victoria and after supervising 11 PhD students at Horsham, continues a supervisor role in his honorary position with the University of Melbourne.

Dr Panozzo studied a science degree and majored in biochemistry.

“After I graduated, I was successful in applying for the job at Horsham and started in the early 1980s,” he said.

“I then did a PhD with the University of NSW, looking at the effects of heat stress on wheat, how it changed the protein composition within the wheat, what the effect of that heat stress was on the processing quality and whether the wheat retained its designated market value or if it gets downgraded.

“Once I had that degree, it gave me a broad set of skills and I was able to came up in Horsham and I was successful,” he said.

“Horsham is a great place to bring up a family. It’s a safe environment, there are excellent schools and sporting facilities and good career opportunities.

“One of the things I miss is autumn in Horsham, because the mornings are cold and there might be frost but then there’s a clear blue sky and it’s fantastic.” for ‘outstanding scientific achievement and contribution to knowledge in the field of grain science’.

Dr Panozzo’s first role was testing wheat for quality traits.

“As my career developed, I also took on the role of testing barley for malting quality traits for beer, canola for oil composition and then later pulses for cooking quality and splitting,” he said.

“When I first started, the lab was quite small – there were only about three people there.

“Over time, the person running it retired, we expanded and I led a group that was, at its peak, about 23 people working on different projects associated with crop improvement.

Agriculture Victoria research head Simone Warner said Dr Panozzo was career had been new and different. “I also enjoyed working in agriculture science because I could see the practical outcomes,” he said.

“It was always about either improv

I would estimate there were probably 30 scientists.

“Some did PhDs, others obtained experience and worked in other organisations and some stayed on and have been there for 20-plus years.”

Along with an honorary position with the University of Melbourne, Dr Panozzo has positions with Charles Sturt University and Monash University.

He said he continued to supervise PhD students who were working on different aspects of agriculture science during his retirement, which was another element of his work he enjoyed.

“Everybody has to retire at some point, but there’s probably never been a better time to be working in agriculture or working in science,” he said. “The advancements in technology are so great, which allows information to be captured quicker and data to be used in many ways.

“The next generation of artificial intelligence, AI, will use that data to

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