has performed many leadership roles in both professional and voluntary organisations.

His research has focused on Tropical Fruits and he has worked on collaborative projects in many tropical countries.

He has been a member of ISHS since the early 1970s. He has initiated new working groups, convened new and established symposia (commencing with the “International Symposium on Biotechnology of Tropical and Subtropical Species” in Brisbane in 1997), and served as a council member for Australia.

He served on the ISHS executive for 8 years as Chair of the Commission Biotechnology and In Vitro Culture, and has edited 8 volumes of Acta Horticulturae.

More recently, he was co-President of IHC2014 and at the council meeting in Brisbane, 2014, was elected as President of ISHS.

He is President of the Australian Society for Horticultural Science, a member of the International Society for Plant Biotechnology, a Registered Horticulturist with the Australian Institute of Horticulture and a Fellow of the Queensland Academy of Arts and Science.