Professor James Stuart Flinton Barker
Emeritus Professor - Faculty of Science, Agriculture, Business and Law; School of Environmental and Rural Science
Phone: +61 2 6618 9462
Email: sbarker@une.edu.au
Biography
Stuart graduated B Agr Sc in 1953, then B Agr Sc Honours 1 in 1955, both from the University Queensland, PhD from the University Sydney in 1962 and Honarary D Sc from the University of New England in 2008. He was first employed as Assistant Husbandry Officer, Animal Research Station, Department of Agriculture and Stock, Queensland from 1954 to 1956, then moved to the Department of Animal Husbandry, University of Sydney as Temporary part-time Lecturer in Animal Genetics 1956 - 1959, Lecturer in Animal Genetics 1959 -1961, Senior Lecturer in Animal Genetics 1962 - 1965, Associate Professor in Animal Genetics 1965 - 1979. He was appointed Professor of Animal Science and Head of Department, University of New England 1979 -1993, ARC Senior Research Fellow, Department of Animal Science, University of New England from 1993 to 1998, and maintained a research laboratory at the University until 2005. He was appointed Emeritus Professor in 1998. He has supervised 27 PhD and 13 Masters students. His research has been in quantitative, ecological and evolutionary genetics and their applications in animal breeding and the conservation of domestic animal diversity. Much of the research has been done using Drosophila species as the experimental organism for studies validating quantitative genetic theory, and factors affecting genetic variation in natural populations. Research has included confirmation of genetic variation for internal parasite resistance in sheep and genetic analyses of water buffalo populations throughout Asia. His research has been supported by the Australian Research Council, Australian Meat Research Corporation, Australian Wool Corporation, Australian Center for International Agricultural Research, Potter Foundation, US/Australia Science Program, and by grants to international collaborators in UK, Denmark, USA and China. He has consulted for FAO since 1980 and was Chair of the FAO Panel of Experts on the Development of the Global Strategy for Animal Genetic Resources 1996 - 1999. He has served on the Editorial Boards of several Journals and as assessor of research grant applications to organisations in Australia, USA, Canada, NATO, Netherlands, Ireland, Sweden and India.
