Phil Rolston
Scientist
Forage Improvement
From Christchurch to China, Phil is known for his tireless work to improve agricultural development.
Biographical Information
From Christchurch to China, AgResearch Forage Improvement Scientist Phil Rolston is known for his tireless work to improve agricultural development.
Phil received the 2005 AgResearch Technology Transfer Award from the New Zealand Institute of Agriculture and Horticulture Science (NZIAHS).
At an awards dinner that attracted over 200 people to Lincoln University, Phil received his award from AgResearch Chief Science Strategist Stephen Goldson.
The award recognised Phil's significant achievement in technology transfer to the New Zealand herbage seed industry and rural agriculture in China.
Phil, who has been based at AgResearch Lincoln for over 13 years, has actually been with the company for over 31 years starting at AgResearch Grasslands in 1974 in weed management, spending time in seed research looking at weed control issues and eventually moving full time into herbage seed agronomy from about 1982.
He says he was pleased to receive the award and that it is great to have recognition for his services to the farming community.
Phil was nominated for the award by Foundation for Arable Research CEO Nick Pyke and Dr John Keoghan of the Canterbury section of the NZIAHS.
The award consists of a year's membership to the NZIAHS, $1200 and a framed certificate.
Phil intends to use the money to help cover the costs of attending the next International Herbage Seed Research Conference in 2007 to be held in Oslo, Norway.
Phil says the award will not change his future plans drastically.
"I will continue what I am doing, which includes a consultancy in Kyrgyzstan in August, a spot of contract lecturing at Lincoln University in Seed Technology and continued research and development in the herbage seed industry with a focus on endophyte-seed issues."
Some of Phil's career highlights are; the development of the Ryegrass 2000 programme launched in 1993 and the acknowledgement of his contribution to Chinese agriculture.
In homage to his contribution to agricultural development in China, Phil was awarded a Friendship Medal (the highest honour awarded to a non-Chinese) in 1996 for grasslands work he did in the southwest Chinese province of Guizhou.
Phil received the award from Chinese vice president Zhu Rong Jie in the Great Hall of the People (Tiananmen Square, Beijing).
Phil has also worked in Argentina and Iran and says without the support he gets at home and at work his job would be very different. AgResearch Chief Science Strategist Stephen Goldson presented Phil Rolston with his award.