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Honorary doctor from Wageningen, Graham Farquhar, wins esteemed price
The Australian researcher Graham Farquhar, who received an honorary doctorate in Wageningen, won the prestigious Prime Minister’s Prize for Science. He is awarded this great honour for his research on modelling the photosynthesis process. He receives AUS$ 250.000.
Prof. Paul Struik, who was the promotor of Farquhar in 2013, is very enthusiastic: “This is of course fantastic news and it confirms that Wageningen University has done right by granting this honorary doctorate.” The collaboration between Struiks’ research group of the Wageningen Centre for Crop Systems Analysis and that of laureate Farquhar will continue, considering the recent pre-publication on micro scale modelling of CO2 transport light penetration in tomato leaves, in the academic journal Plant, Cell and Environment.
The price has been awarded on October 21st by the Australian Prime Minister in the Parliament House of Canberra, Australia. Graham Farquhar receives the price for his outstanding research in the area of modelling photosynthesis processes and the world food supply. With his work on the theme “Feeding the world, and asking where the wind went”, he revealed a worldwide climate mystery. Evaporation and wind speeds are decreasing world-wide, contrasting with what most climate models are predicting. As a result, life under changing climate conditions might be more favourable than originally thought.
The Prime Minister’s Prizes for Sciences are the most prestigious and highly valued Australian prices for outstanding scientific research, innovation and education.