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Dr. Bennett graduated from the University of Sydney
in 1967 with First Class Honours in Biochemistry. His PhD studies on
Molecular Plant Pathology of Wheat Stem Rust and Barley Powdery
Mildew were initiated in the Biochemistry Department of the
University of Sydney in 1968 and were concluded in the School of
Botany, University of Queensland, in 1971 in the laboratories of Dr.
Kenneth J. Scott. Dr. Bennett worked in the laboratory of Professor
R. John Ellis at the University of Warwick, Coventry, UK, first as a
Postdoctoral Fellow (1971-1973) and then as a Lecturer (1973-1983).
During this period he studied the initiation of transcription of
plastid genes, the photoregulation of chloroplast development,
especially of the light-harvesting apparatus, and the regulation and
function of chloroplast protein phosphorylation. He continued this
work from 1983 to 1989 in the Biology Division of Brookhaven
National Laboratory, Long Island, New York, USA. From 1989 to 1992
he was Senior Scientist at the International Centre for Genetic
Engineering and Biotechnology, New Delhi, India, where he focused on
mapping genes for resistance to the Asian rice gall midge and
evaluating the soybean trypsin inhibitor gene as a possible means of
enhancing resistance to rice stem borers through genetic
transformation. From 1992 until his retirement in 2008 he was Senior
Molecular Biologist at the International Rice Research Institute
near Manila, Philippines, where he continued his studies on mapping
gall midge resistance genes of rice and developing transgenic rice
with enhanced resistance to stem borers. From 1997 he changed his
research focus to understanding the sensitivity of rice to salinity
and drought stress, especially at the reproductive stage, and to
developing a synthetic form of apomixis to reduce the cost and
enhance the flexibility of hybrid rice production. |
