Congratulations to Dr Andrew Urquhart for receiving the Allen Kerr Postgraduate Prize.
This was recently awarded for his PhD work on on the plant-pathogenic fungus Leptosphaeria maculans in which he identified four new genes required for plant disease. He also worked to characterise the potential biocontrol agent Paecilomyces variotii, including defining the gene cluster responsible for the synthesis of the key secondary metabolite viriditoxin. His PhD work has led to the publication of 10 research papers to date. This prize is awarded by the Australasian Plant Pathology Society for the best piece of original research relevant to Australasia by a postgraduate student in the field of plant pathology