Dr Michael Bange: leading research into cotton crop physiology and management

Dr Michael Bange develops decision support tools to assist cotton farm management.

• 9 February 2010 | Updated 24 November 2011

Overview

• Current activities
• Background
• Academic qualifications
• Achievements

Current activities

Dr Michael Bange leads research for improved understanding of cotton growth and development for improved crop management.

In collaboration with other researchers, he participates and leads initiatives that seek to create linkages between crop physiology and biotech research for abiotic stress tolerance, climate change impacts and adaptation, improved cotton systems, and water use efficiency.

His own research includes detailed investigations into the impacts of climate and management on cotton fibre quality and consequences on textile performance.

Dr Bange also leads the development of cotton decision support systems and he explicitly seeks out opportunities to improve the cotton industry’s access to climate information.

Background

Dr Bange has been involved in research into farming systems and crop physiology and modelling for the past 19 years working in NSW, Queensland and the Northern Territory.

From 1997 to 2008, he has also led a team developing and applying decision support tools to assist research dissemination in the Australian cotton industry. Since 2008 he has been leading a team conducting research into cotton crop physiology and management.

Dr Bange has been a previous Program Leader in the Australian Cotton Cooperative Research Centre (CRC).

Academic qualifications

Dr Bange was awarded a Bachelor of Applied Science with First Class Honours, in Agronomy/Land Resources from the University of Queensland, Brisbane, in 1991.

In 1995, he was awarded a Doctorate from the same university for his thesis in Crop Agronomy/Physiology.

Achievements

Dr Bange's team has won a number of national information technology awards for their innovations in developing and applying decision support tools to the cotton industry.

Dr Bange is also a recent recipient of a prestigious Fulbright Scholarship in 2004. 

In 2009 he was Cotton Australia's 'Researcher of the Year'.

He is an adjunct Associate Professor with The University of Sydney, New South Wales.

See Dr Bange's scientific publications on the next page.