Professor Kaye Basford: A Statistician, a Biometrician and Loving It…
Kaye Basford
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In the 1970’s I went to the University of Queensland to study mathematics and science, with the intention to become a high school teacher. However, I accepted a Commonwealth Scholarship, rather than a bonded Teachers Scholarship, to give me more flexibility (but with the same living allowance because my Mother was on a pension). Maths was my favourite subject at high school, probably because you could get the “right” answer, and I also played the piano and basketball (both of which I still do). I was only introduced to statistics at university, but it immediately appealed to me because it could be applied to so many different areas.
My first job was with the Department of Agriculture as a technologist, or more
explicitly a biometrician. What does a biometrician do? Biometry is the science
of statistics in the agricultural and biological sciences. My focus was on the
analysis and interpretation of data collected from large-scale multi-environment
plant breeding experiments such as those conducted by the international centres
for agricultural research. I have maintained an interest in basic, strategic and
applied research to solve the problems encountered in this area.
In 1988, I was appointed as a Senior Lecturer, so perhaps the lure of teaching
was there all along. It was most rewarding to receive the Faculty of
Agricultural
Science students’ “Golden Lectern Award for Outstanding Lecturing” the same
year. Subsequently, I was promoted to Reader in Biometry and was concurrently
Deputy Dean of the Faculty of Agricultural Science. Although “agriculture” is
not generally seen as a modern career choice, the study of agricultural,
environmental and food sciences is of increasing importance in the world and
graduates are in great demand. In 2000, I was appointed Professor of Biometry
and in 2001, Head of the School of Land and Food Sciences. We were delighted
when a recent review process showed that this school was recognised as one of
Australia’s leading providers of multidisciplinary training across the core
areas of soil and water, plant, animal and food sciences.
Recently, I have been involved in the
establishment of the Australian Centre for Plant Functional Genomics which is
focussed on abiotic stress and productivity in cereals. Key objectives include
developing methodology for accurate modelling of the genetic architecture of
complex traits, linking genetic modelling and crop growth modelling capability,
and using optimisation methodology to quantify resource allocation options
within plant breeding programs. It is funded from the Australian Research Centre
(ARC) and the Grains Research and Development Corporation (GRDC) with $20M over
5 years. Primarily based at Adelaide University, the Centre has nodes at
Melbourne University, the Victorian Department of Primary Industries and the
University of Queensland (UQ). I lead the UQ node which provides data management
and bioinformatics support.
My original interest in pattern
analysis techniques arose from a request from plant breeders for better ways to
analyse data than an analysis of variance table that indicated all effects were
significant and that hundreds of paired comparisons needed to be made. By
innovatively using pattern analysis, scientists are now able to integrate
qualitative, quantitative and
molecular data to provide both a global and local summary of the interaction and
relationships among genotypes, environments and attributes. I recently
co-authored a book (Graphical Analysis of Multiresponse Data: Illustrated with a
Plant Breeding Trial, Basford and Tukey, 1999) which presents various graphical
approaches to this problem. A suitably constructed picture can aid enormously in
the interpretation of data and good graphics mean that young scientists don’t
need to have twenty years experience with a particular crop to understand and
interpret the data collected from their experiments.
Apart from scientific research at the
University, I have been an elected academic staff member on the UQ Senate, am
presently Chair of the UQ Disciplinary Board, the UQ representative on the Grain
Research Foundation, a member of the Board of UQ Sport and Chair of the Board of
Union College. I am currently Vice-President of the Statistical Society of
Australia Incorporated and will be President for 2 years from July 2005 – a real
honour and privilege. Not only do I enjoy these activities, it is important for
different perspectives to be presented and for young women to see role models at
various levels of such forums.
Awards have allowed me to travel and
develop strong collaborations. For example, I was awarded a Fulbright
Postdoctoral Fellowship to Cornell University 1988, University of Queensland
International Collaborative Research Awards to Princeton University, and a
Department of Industry, Technology and Commerce Award in the Bilateral Science
and Technology Program to Leiden University (in The Netherlands) in the
nineties. It was a great honour for me to be awarded the Australian Medal for
Agriculture from the Australian Institute of Agricultural Science and Technology
in 1998. This was for outstanding research and scholarship at the interface
between statistics and quantitative genetics and the impact of my work on the
design and analysis of large-scale field experiments. Last year, I accepted an
invitation to teach in an FAO course (for African plant breeders) in Florence in
Italy on the design and analysis of field trials.
I love showing people that statistics
is an essential discipline in so many different areas and enjoy both local and
extended community involvement. Understanding the applicability and relevance of
statistics really enhances the ability to undertake and benefit from scientific
research – too few people realise this but I hope to keep getting the message
across.
I look forward to the challenges in higher education and hope that I can make an effective contribution to solving some of the issues confronting us in combining teaching, research and professional activities. Fortunately, I have had a very supportive family (husband Alan and children Lee and Jay) and we have all enjoyed life along the way.
