The plants we love to hate have led Professor Kristine French on a vast and varied career, now been capped by a prestigious award from her peers.
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Professor French, of the University of Wollongong, has been awarded the Gold Medal by the Ecological Society of Australia, hailed by the society as a pioneer and world leader in her field who has helped foster and mentor the next generation of scientists.
With a 25-year body of work studying weeds, threatened species, urban ecology and ecosystem stresses, Professor French has been lucky enough to experience environments from one extreme of the Australian continent to another, while working outdoors alongside dedicated researchers.
Her path has been akin to that of the pests - a study of how birds spread weed seeds led to a focus on weed species, and a move to Wollongong accelerated the journey.
"I was looking at how birds moved seeds around forests," Professor French said. "When I came to Wollongong I decided I would focus on a weed species that was also moved by birds."
Her early efforts would diverge into other projects - and the Illawarra landscape, with its infestations of bitou bush and lantana, yielded rich pickings.
"When I moved down to Wollongong this was one of the things I noticed - my goodness, this place is very weedy. There's plenty to do. There could be 15 of me and we still wouldn't get all the answers. It's a long job."
With lantana and bitou so established, is it possible to think they can be eradicated?
"These days we look at eradication [as] being those rare occasions when they're really early invaders and there aren't many of them.
"Now ... the best thing we can do is reduce its impact.
"The environmental management and monitoring, they're very much underfunded. I feel quite sorry for the guys in state governments who are charged with doing all this work because they just get very small dollars ... to do this management. You need a lot more. There needs to be a much bigger budget to turn around the impact of weeds. Especially now we've had some good rainfall, everyone's weeds are going gangbusters."
My goodness, this place is very weedy
- Professor Kristine French
Professor French, director of the Janet Cosh Herbarium at UOW, appreciated this award as it came from fellow scientists.
"It's your peers - it's the association you join in this field. I'm rather honoured to have achieved this."
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