Federal Council
Federal Council is charged with managing the national affairs and business of AAAS.
Members of the AAAS Federal Council
Di Mayberry
Di is a Senior Research Scientist with CSIRO in Brisbane and Past President of the AAAS Qld & NT Branch. She has a BSc (Agriculture) and PhD in ruminant nutrition, both from the University of Western Australia.
Di’s research combines experimental and modelling approaches to evaluate how changes to livestock production systems (from alternative feeding systems to changing climates) impact productivity, farmer livelihoods and the environment. She has 10-years experience working in developing countries, particularly in Southeast Asia.
Di has worked on sheep, beef and dairy production systems in Australia, Indonesia, Myanmar, China, India and Tanzania.
Stephanie Muir
Stephanie Muir is a research scientist with Agriculture Victoria Research based in Hamilton, Victoria Stephanie is a graduate from the University of Melbourne, completing both a B Ag Sci (Hons) and a PhD at this institution. Her current research work involves feed intake, feed efficiency and methane emissions in sheep, however she has cross industry interests, having conducted research on beef and dairy cattle and as part of grazing systems experiments.
Sue Hatcher
Sue is the Director of Makin Outcomes, an independent research and development consultancy specialising in applied sheep genetics, reproduction and fibre metrology. Sue was recently made a fellow of the Australian Society of Animal Production and is an Adjunct Senior Research Fellow at CSU. Sue was previously Principal Research Scientist with NSW DPI in Orange and has 26 years of experience in scientific research and a proven track record of effective extension of research results to industry. Her research interests are diverse and include genetic improvement of wool production, wool quality and reproductive performance, wool processing, wool metrology and fibre identification, breeding ewe management, lamb and weaner survival and physiological and behavioural responses of sheep to wild dog predation.
Amy Bates
Amy is a current PhD student at Charles Sturt University in Wagga Wagga. Her research is focussed on ewe nutritional management guidelines, especially at joining, and the subsequent impact on reproductive outcomes. Amy will achieve this through the collection of body condition score and pregnancy scanning data across NSW, VIC and SA, a survey conducted with participating producers and AusFarm modelling. This will assist in determining the impact of ewe breed, season of joining, region and reproductive response to improved condition on enterprise gross margins. Prior to commencing her PhD in 2020, Amy worked in a range of industries including poultry, red meat and animal pharmaceuticals. Originating from South Australia, Amy completed a BSc (Animal Science) (Hons I) at the University of Adelaide in 2016 in which she explored abalone nutrition. Amy is currently the southern NSW branch secretary and branch representative to the Federal Council.
Michael Campbell
Michael is a lecturer in Farming Systems (with a focus on Meat Science and Ruminant Production) at Charles Sturt University in Wagga Wagga. He completed his PhD in Dairy Farm Systems (USyd) and has an MBA (UNE) and BScAgr (USyd). Michael has a strong interest in commercial agricultural production and has previously managed a fully integrated cattle operation in Papua New Guinea, worked in rural banking and as a beef cattle extension officer for the NSW DPI. Michael has also worked as a consultant on farm business benchmarking projects. Michael is a member of the Australian Intercollegiate Meat Judging Competition committee and Federal Council of AAAS.
Luis Prada e Silva
Luis is a graduate of the Universidade de Sao Paulo, Brasil (agronomic engineering), B Sc, has a Master of Science degree from the same university (animal science and pastures), and a PhD from Michigan State University (animal science). Before being appointed as Senior Research Fellow of QAAFI in January 2017, he was an Associated Professor at the Veterinary Medicine School at the Universidade de Sao Paulo, Brazil, where he taught classes in Ruminant Nutrition, Biochemistry and Pasture Management and Conservation. Dr Silva’s main interest is beef cattle nutrition and has worked with different disciplines such as ruminant nutrition, ruminant physiology, rumen microbiology, ruminant reproduction, forage management, molecular biology, and economics of cattle production systems to improve cattle productivity. He is President of the AAAS Queensland and NT Branch.
Charles Rikard-Bell
Charles is responsible for the commercialisation of intellectual property as Manager, Commercialisation and Research Impact for Australasian Pork Research Institute Ltd (APRIL). Charles worked in UK, Belgium and USA as a pig geneticist before returning to Australia to work with a multinational animal health company for 11 years, holding technical, sales and marketing roles in Australia and Asia Pacific. Charles gained his PhD in nutrition and biology through the CRC for an Internationally Competitive Pork Industry.
Jo Newton
Jo (OAM) is a research scientist with Agriculture Victoria. Since completing a PhD in livestock genetics at the University of New England, Jo’s work has focused on the value of better herd improvement decisions on farm. A recipient of an Endeavour Postdoctoral Fellowship, Jo spent 6 months as a visiting scientist in Ireland developing a tool to explore the benefits of genomic testing on dairy, beef and sheep farms. Jo has a history of advocacy and involvement in the wider agricultural community, particularly in supporting young agriculturalists. Jo is the President of the Victorian and Tasmanian branch of AAAS.
To be advised
