Convention challenging rewarded

Western Australian researcher David Pannell has won the WE Wood Award, Australia’s most prestigious prize for salinity research.

Associate professor Pannell is a researcher with the Cooperative Research Centre for Plant-based Management of Dryland Salinity at the University of Western Australia.

Award selection panel chairman Kevin Goss said Professor Pannell had been a national research leader demonstrating that potential solutions to dryland salinity must take account of its complexity.

"He has shown that simple solutions, applied broadly, just won’t work," Mr Goss said.

"They will be a waste of resources and lead to dashed expectations.

"David Pannell’s work has greatly influenced policy makers who are now heeding his message."

The WE Wood Award was constituted by the National Dryland Salinity Program five years ago and commemorates the foresight and achievements of railway engineer Walter Ernest Wood who, in 1924, recognised and reported on the salinity risks associated with land clearing.