Dr Lewis (Lewe) Atkinson Manager, Knowledge and Program Improvement, Meat and Livestock Australia Ltd

…[from previous page]… Lewis is a natural systems thinker and has been awarded a PhD in Chemical Engineering and a Masters of Business Administration from the University of Queensland. He is a high calibre innovation professional. He likes people and people like him. Lewis has been a core member of many high performance teams. He has a solid technical and financial grounding which, combined with his strong creative side, enables him to see patterns, path-ways, and solutions that others don’t.

Lewe is best described as a connector, a link player, a networker, and systems thinker. His core strengths, are summarised as follows:

• Innovation activist: Leveraging skills, knowledge, and resources to secure traction for innovative ideas and solutions for individuals, organizations, and communities.
• Big picture framer: Championing new insights and vision with key stakeholders such that they can view issues from the perspective of other parts of the same system.
• Relationship integrator: Engaging, networking, and relationship building to create sustainable collaborative partnerships.
• A critical friend: Capable of facilitating safe environments for self-reflection and learning by individuals, teams, and organizations.

Lewis is a warm and generous person with lots of insights and wisdom to share through his own learning website.

Dr Sarah Pethybridge Agricultural Research Manager, Botanical Resources Australia – Agricultural Services Pty. Ltd.

…[from previous page]… Pethybridge’s main research area is quantitative disease epidemiology and her work has balanced fundamental research with applied outcomes to ensure that efficient and sound disease management strategies are adopted widely by producers and other stakeholders. Pethybridge has made substantial contributions to our understanding of the epidemiology and management of virus diseases of hop. Additionally, she conducted a risk analysis for two exotic fungal diseases-powdery and downy mildew-that have assisted in tightening quarantine regulations to reduce the probability of introduction of these diseases into Australia. Pethybridge has made outstanding contributions toward clarifying the etiology, epidemiology, and management of a new fungal disease of pyrethrum, ray blight, which caused substantial losses to the Australian pyrethrum industry in 2000. As a result of her research, management strategies were implemented within two years of disease identification, and economic losses from this disease have been minimized. Her research findings and management recommendations have been broadly adopted by the Australian pyrethrum industry, being implemented by greater than 90% of the industry. Moreover, Pethybridge’s collaborative approach to this problem has resulted in extensive international research efforts, with nine scientists visiting her laboratory in the last eight years, all resulting in peer-reviewed journal articles.

Pethybridge has also participated in teaching programs for plant pathology and crop health management within the University of Tasmania. Her course and teaching were awarded Teaching Merit Certificates (nominated by the participants) in 2004. She has also contributed to the supervision team of 12 graduate students. In 2003, she was awarded the Australian Institute of Agricultural Science and Technology’s Agri-Industry Award, and in the subsequent year, the University of Tasmania’s Foundation Award for Outstanding Graduates. In 2010, she was awarded the Syngenta Award for an outstanding contribution to plant pathology in the first decade of her career by the American Phytopathological Society (APS).