GE fan voted NZ's top scientist

By SIMON COLLINS science reporter

A biologist who wants to genetically modify new plants to improve the world's environment has been elected president of the Royal Society of New Zealand - officially our top scientist.

Dr Jim Watson, chief executive of Auckland firm Genesis Research and Development, says New Zealanders can become "the environmental engineers of the world".

He will replace Christchurch software entrepreneur Sir Gil Simpson in June as head of the Royal Society, the umbrella body for 55 professional bodies ranging from the Royal Astronomical Society of NZ to the NZ Veterinary Association.

Dr Watson, 59, grew up on a dairy farm near Edgecumbe and became a professor at the University of California before returning to Auckland University as professor of microbiology in 1981.

Genesis, which he founded in 1994, is the oldest and biggest of a string of biotechnology companies created by scientists from Auckland and Otago Universities in the past decade. It has developed potential drugs for skin diseases psoriasis and eczema, and built up a database of more than 500,000 gene sequences from plants.

It is working with Wrightsons, which bought 15.4 per cent of Genesis last week, to create new grasses, and with US firm ArborGen to create new trees.

Dr Watson said the new plants would be better for the environment because they would be designed with disease resistance and other factors to reduce the need for chemical fertilisers, pesticides and weedkillers.

"As the quest for the production of more crops or higher yields per acre has gone on, that's driven the use of fertilisers, of weedkillers and pestkillers.

"The downstream has been that the environment is slowly being damaged," he said.

"I don't think the world can avoid better plant breeding techniques because you have got to breed plants to yield to the environment."

Dr Watson said New Zealand was well-placed to develop plants due to its strength in farming and forestry.

"We've got to become almost the environmental engineers of the world. We've got to understand our environment and understand how we can develop solutions to problems, and export them."

In his new role in the Royal Society, Dr Watson aims to encourage more young people to study science, which he believes will become "a dominant culture" in business in the next few decades.