Langridge's research career recognised with King's Birthday Honour

Prof Langridge, who has been an Emeritus professor at the University of Adelaide since 2015 and who was director of the Waite Campus' Australian Centre for Plant Functional Genomics from 2002 to 2014, holds a list of achievements, awards, roles and publications seemingly larger than the wheat genome and now has an Order of Australia Medal to add.

Currently living at Teringie, Prof Langridge has an association with the University of Adelaide stemming back to 1984 when he started as a lecturer in agricultural biochemistry.

He spent six years in that role before spending 1990-1995 as a senior lecturer in plant science.

From 1996-1998 he was an associate professor in plant science, before becoming a professor in the field in 1998.

It was a role he held - alongside the director role of the plant functional genomics centre - until retirement in 2014.

Prof Langridge's association with the University of Adelaide was just one aspect of a remarkable career.

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He was involved in various cereal research initiatives, held advisory roles, was a distinguished guest, and sat on scientific boards in various countries including Mexico, the United States, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, Germany, Italy, India and China.

Just a couple of his international roles have been as International Science Coordinator of the G20 Wheat Initiative since 2017, and Chair of the Scientific Board of the International Wheat Initiative since 2011.

National roles Mr Langridge has held include being a coordinator of the national wheat and barley molecular marker programs from 1998 to 2000, a member of the Agricultural Biotechnology Council of Australia's expert scientific panel, and being a member of the gene technology technical advisory committee for the Office of the Gene Technology Regulator from 2001 to 2007.

He was also the chair of the expert working group on food security in a changing world for the Prime Minister's Science, Engineering and Innovation Council from 2010 to 2011, and has been a member of the expert reference panel for the gene technology scheme implementation since 2019.

Prof Langridge is also chair of the National Committee for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, a role held since 2022.

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He holds a number of honorary fellowships and professorships, including at the Scottish Crop Research Institute, Food Standards Australia and New Zealand, the Kazakh National Agrarian University, the James Hutton Institute in the UK, and Perth's Murdoch University.

Prof Langridge's previous awards and recognition include the Alexander von Humboldt award, recognition given by the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation of Germany to internationally-renowned scientists and scholars who work outside of Germany in recognition of their lifetime's research achievements.

He was named a Biffen lecturer in 2010, a lectureship in honour of Sir Rowland Biffen, a British botanist, mycologist, geneticist and a professor of agricultural botany who was renowned for his work on breeding wheat varieties.

Prof Langridge was also named SA scientist of the year in 2011 and was a member of the Premier's Science and Industry Council from 2012 to 2013.

His academic impact has been immeasurable, authoring 30 book chapters, more than 300 research papers and editing three books, as well as being an editor of various agronomy, plant genetics and plant genomics publications.

He has been the supervisor of 66 PhD students and is an inventor, with seven patent applications.