Professor Victor Galea

Professor

School of Agriculture and Food Sustainability
Faculty of Science
v.galea@uq.edu.au
+61 7 54601 282

Overview

I am a plant pathologist specialising in the study of fungal pathogens of all manner of plants from agricultural and natural settings. My research career has spanned various areas of interest from horticultural and agricultural crop diseases, the development of disease forecasting systems, the study of soil mycorrhizal fungi, the use of beneficial microbes in promoting soil health and plant disease management and the scholarship of teaching and learning.

A key area of development has been the investigation of dieback disorders of invasive woody weeds in the Australian landscape. This has resulted in the development of a bioherbicide for the invasive weed Parkinsonia and the establishment of a start-up company - BioHerbicides Australia (BHA). BHA now produces this bioherbicide (which is a registered product) and has developed a range of synthetic herbicide products along with the delivery technology required for field implementation. My research team bioprospects for new control agents for a range of woody weeds (there are many) and also explores the use of synthetic herbicides. My research takes me to many interesting locations in outback Queensland, the Northern Territory, Western Australia and New South Wales. I am interested in many weed species including mimosa bush, chinee apple, celtis, prickly acacia, athel pine, mesquite, leucaena, rubber vine and various cacti.

I have been Deputy Head of School (Gatton) since 2013 where my main function has been to support the HoS as we develop this school through a process of growth and change with recruitment of new staff, development of new processes and teams and create a true sense of collegiality across both campus locations. We have taken Agriculture at UQ from an international ranking of #7 in 2016 to #3 in 2022. Apart from administrative tasks, my key role is to support and develop new staff to settle into their academic jobs, assist them with achieving milestones and probation and manage their development of KPIs and career development.

Qualifications

  • Postgraduate Diploma in Education, The University of Queensland
  • Doctor of Philosophy, La Trobe University
  • Bachelor (Honours) of Science (Advanced), La Trobe University

Publications

View all Publications

Grants

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Available Projects

  • Collaboration with Bioherbicides Australia to evalute their technology for use in ecological restoration.

  • Celtis sinensis is an agressively invasive woody weed throughout south east Queensland. This project will develop fungal agents for use a bioherbicide candidates to control this weed.

  • Working with Professor Peter Dart, we can examine the use of biologically produced active compounds for the control of foliar plant pathogens in leafy vegetable crops.

View all Available Projects

Publications

Book

Book Chapter

  • Stewart, Terry M., MacIntyre, William R. and Galea, Victor J. (2005). Challenge FRAP - A combination guide and reporting tool for problem-based exercises. Towards sustainable and scalable educational innovations informed by the learning sciences : sharing good practices of research, experimentation and innovation. (pp. 444-451) edited by Chee-Kit Looi, David H Jonassen and Mitsuru Ikeda. Washington DC U.S.A.: IOS Press.

Journal Article

Conference Publication

Other Outputs

Grants (Administered at UQ)

PhD and MPhil Supervision

Current Supervision

  • Doctor Philosophy — Principal Advisor

    Other advisors:

  • Doctor Philosophy — Principal Advisor

  • Doctor Philosophy — Principal Advisor

  • Doctor Philosophy — Principal Advisor

  • Doctor Philosophy — Associate Advisor

  • Doctor Philosophy — Associate Advisor

    Other advisors:

  • Doctor Philosophy — Associate Advisor

  • Doctor Philosophy — Associate Advisor

Completed Supervision

Possible Research Projects

Note for students: The possible research projects listed on this page may not be comprehensive or up to date. Always feel free to contact the staff for more information, and also with your own research ideas.

  • Collaboration with Bioherbicides Australia to evalute their technology for use in ecological restoration.

  • Celtis sinensis is an agressively invasive woody weed throughout south east Queensland. This project will develop fungal agents for use a bioherbicide candidates to control this weed.

  • Working with Professor Peter Dart, we can examine the use of biologically produced active compounds for the control of foliar plant pathogens in leafy vegetable crops.

  • Working with Dr Paul Melloy, we will develop disease forecasting systems for economically important crops