The Australian Orchid Foundation is an Approved Research Institute. The members of the Research Committee, all specialists in Orchidaceae, must be approved by the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO).
All applications for funding are reviewed by the Research Committee who make recommendations to the Directors.
The Australian Orchid Foundation invites applications for grants or support from any person or group who wish to undertake specialised work on any subject that relates to orchids, whether endemic or otherwise. The work must be performed in Australia and/or must relate to the orchids of Australasia.
For further information see Grant Applications
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Professor Kingsley Dixon (Director of Science) |
Professor Kingsley Dixon, Director of Science at Kings Park and Botanic Garden in Perth, Western Australia is a specialist in the ecology, restoration and conservation biology of Australian native plants and ecosystems with a special emphasis on the conservation biology of Australian terrestrial orchids. He has led the science group at Kings Park and Botanic Garden for the past 20 years in developing the principles of integrated conservation by building a strong multi-disciplinary approach. Research teams comprise scientists and postgraduate students specialising in seed ecology and biology, propagation science, germplasm conservation, conservation genetics and restoration ecology. This research group has contributed significantly to seed science in Australia, with advances in understanding seed dormancy. Dr. Dixon was instrumental over the past 12 years in leading and working with the research team that led to the discovery of the chemical in smoke responsible for the germination in seeds of Australian and other agricultural and horticultural species. He is the inaugural Permanent Visiting Professor in the School of Plant Biology at The University of Western Australia. |
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Dr. Ben Wallace B.Sc., (Hons 1) Ph.D. |
Dr. Ben Wallace has current associations with the Orchid Research Group at the Centre for Plant Biodiversity Research and is a consultant in botany, ecology and horticulture. Much of his past work, including his doctoral research focused on the ecology and eco-physiology of orchids as well as other plant groups. He is a past Horticultural Botanist (1982-1990) with the Royal Botanic Gardens in Sydney, traveling to many Australian as well as exotic locations including Chile, Costa Rica, PNG, Borneo, Yunnan, Thailand, New Caledonia, Kenya, Zimbabwe, and New Zealand. He was also Director of the Living Collections Division (1991-2000) at the Australian National Botanic Gardens in Canberra, and a member of the Centre for Plant Biodiversity Research having collected many living specimens for the work of the Orchid Research Group.
He has maintained a personal collection of epiphytic orchids for some 40 years and is an avid photographer of orchids, both in culture and in the wild. He is a frequent presenter of lectures on various aspects of orchids as well as other plant groups. He operates ecotours to China and Malesia. |
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Dr. Colin C. Bower Ph.D. |
Dr. Colin Bower obtained his Ph.D. in entomology from the University of Sydney in
1975. This was followed by 17 years working as a research entomologist for
the NSW Department of Agriculture on the development of integrated pest
management systems in apples at Bathurst and Orange. He became a Program Leader, a position he held for 10 years from 1992, before becoming a private consultant. He has been absorbed in bushwalking, natural history and nature photography all his adult life, becoming interested in native terrestrial orchids in the late 1970's. He began studying their pollination in the 1980's combining his interests in both insects and orchids. His special interest is the sexual deception pollination syndrome in the Bird Orchids of the Chiloglottis alliance and the Spider Orchids, Arachnorchis (Caladenia) on which he has published a number of scientific papers. His work demonstrated the high degree of pollinator specificity in these orchids, leading to the identification of many new cryptic orchid species. He is currently engaged in a project on the pollinators of threatened sexually deceptive Arachnorchis (Caladenia) species with the aim of developing strategies to improve orchid conservation by identifying and protecting their pollinators. |
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Professor Rod Peakall B.Sc., (Hons) Ph.D. |
Rod Peakall is a Professor in Evolutionary Biology at the School of Botany and Zoology, The Australian National University. Orchids have featured strongly, but by no means exclusively, in his research in greater part because their novel pollination systems are ideal for exploring a range of evolutionary questions. This research has provided exciting opportunities for multidisciplinary research spanning reproductive ecology, genetics, phylogeny and chemical ecology. This multidisciplinary approach, combined with the use of innovative tools and experimental design that take advantage of the unique features of orchids, has positioned him as an international leader in the field of orchid evolutionary biology. He has written more than 75 refereed papers, many of which are published in the very best international journals in the field. His orchid research has also been featured in multiple commentaries, reviews and textbooks as well as on TV and radio. He is highly regarded for his enthusiastic and ‘plain English’ seminars leading to regular invitations to present both public and scientific seminars in Australia, USA and Europe.
Professor Peakall’s current major research project is investigating the ecological, genetic and phylogenetic evidence for sympatric speciation in Chiloglottis from the multiple perspectives of chemical ecology, population phylogeny, population genetics and reproductive biology. Chiloglottis orchids are pollinated by sexual deception and were chosen as a ‘model’ system because evidence suggested they might provide novel examples of recent sympatric speciation. |
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Contact us -
Australian Orchid Foundation
P.O. Box 322,
Essendon North,
Vic. 3041
Phone: +61 3 5627 6303
Fax: +61 3 5627 6303
Email: enquiries@australianorchidfoundation.org.au |
