Australasian Plant Pathology Society

The invitation to present the Daniel McAlpine Lecture to the Biennial Conference of the Australasian Plant Pathology Society is extended to an eminent scientist in recognition of their significant contribution to Australasian Plant Pathology.   

Daniel McAlpines contribution as the father of plant pathology in Australia was to attend to any disease that might form the subject of inquiry - a definition of the role of a plant pathologist which is still relevant. His most notable contributions were to study wheat rust following the 1889 epidemic, to classify and describe Australian smuts, and to recognise Ophiobolus graminis (now Gaeumannomyces graminis) as the cause of wheat take-all. He also collaborated with Farrer on resistance to rust in wheat. It has been written that he did a difficult pioneering job pushing down deeply the roots of plant pathology in his adopted country and preparing the way for Australian plant pathologists of the future (Fish 1976).  John Randles (1994)

The lecture commemorates the life and work of Daniel McAlpine and his contribution to the science of plant pathology. He was born in Scotland, and arrived in Australia in 1884 at the age of 35. He had already received considerable training in biology, and became a lecturer at the University of Melbourne. Six years later he became vegetable pathologist in the Department of Agriculture. At the time, plant pathology and plant breeding were facing the challenge of coping with the stem rust epidemics, so McAlpine, together with Farrer became involved. Over the next 26 years McAlpine published 226 papers, a monograph on rusts (1906), and books on the smuts (1910) and on the diseases of citrus (1889), stone fruit (1902) and potatoes (1911).  Ron Close (1996)

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