Forestry Focus for Crawford Fund Fellowships
July 22, 2024
The Crawford Fund is pleased to announce two recipients of 2024 Crawford Fund Fellowships, both coming from Vietnam for 6-weeks training in Australia focused on forestry, which plays an essential role in Vietnam’s economy.
Mr Tran Xuan Hung and Ms Nguyen Thi Loan, both from the Forest Protection Research Centre at the Vietnamese Academy of Forest Science, will be hosted by Associate Professor Simon Lawson at the Forest Research Institute’s Forest Industries Research Centre at the University of the Sunshine Coast.
Hung will undertake training course to learn eDNA techniques in forest pest management, and Loan will participate in training in identifying fungi that cause timber degradation and the solutions for preserving timber-in-service.
The Crawford Fund Fellowship was established in 2002 with the generous support of Dr Brian Booth AM FTSE, with the aim to provide further training for scientists whose work has shown significant potential.
“During the training course for Hung, he will work with Australian scientists in NSW and Queensland and it will allow him to contribute to forest research in Vietnam, especially early detection, diagnosis, and management of pests and pathogens through applying advanced techniques,” said Shaun Coffey, the Fund’s Director of Capacity Building.
“Loan’s training in identifying fungi that cause timber degradation will mean Vietnam has another young researcher with high professional knowledge and experience to help contribute to a sustainable forestry sector in Vietnam.”
Another important expected outcome is further strengthening scientific and technical cooperation between Vietnam and Australia, to add the existing relationships built over many years of ACIAR forestry work in Vietnam, and the Crawford Fund’s own training and mentoring in Vietnam around forestry,” he said.
“We particularly wish to thank Associate Professor Simon Lawson and others who will be assisting with the Fellowship training, including Dr Conrad Trollip at NSW Department of Primary Industries and Dr Louise Shuey at the Department of Agriculture and Fisheries in the Queensland Government.”
We look forward to reporting on the training visit by our two Fellowship awardees for 2024.
