He has provided scientific leadership in the development of technologies to allow eucalypt plantations to be grown more efficiently in Australia. As Director of the CRC for Sustainable Production Forestry he has been at the forefront of research management into the genetic improvement, sustainable management and protection of temperate eucalypt plantations. This has resulted in significant financial benefits to industry which are pre ently estimated at over $120 million. His research during the 1970's and 1980's contributed substantially to the establishment of a combined genetic, physiological biochemical ,111d molecular approach as the method of choice for under tanding plant development. Thi approach has unravelled the control of shoot elongation by the plant hormones, gibberellins and brassinosteroids, · and developed a genetic model for the control of flowering from perception of the photoperiod in the leaves to flower initiation at the apex.