Bruce Stone

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Biosketch - Emeritus Professor Bruce Stone

Professor Stone graduated B.Sc. from the University of Melbourne in 1948, majoring in chemistry and biochemistry. His first appointment was as a Scientific Officer at the Department of Supply's laboratories, Maribyrnong. In 1951 he was seconded for training in mycology to the Commonwealth Mycological Institute, Kew, UK. In 1952 he commenced Ph.D. studies in the Department of Biochemistry at University College, London under the supervision of an expatriate Melbournian, Dr Eric Crook. After graduating in 1954, he held postdoctoral appointments in Ottawa (National Research Council Fellow) and London (Imperial Chemical Industries Fellow). He returned to the Russell Grimwade School of Biochemistry, University of Melbourne as a Lecturer in 1958 and was appointed Reader in Agricultural Biochemistry in 1966. From 1972 until his official retirement in 1995, he served as Foundation Professor of Biochemistry at La Trobe University.

Professor Stone's major research interest in the chemistry and biochemistry of plant polysaccharides arose, during his first appointment, through an investigation of the enzymology of cellulose breakdown. His specific studies on polysaccharide components of cell walls of cereals and grasses encompassed their structure, biosynthesis and depolymerisation and their interactions with lignins and proteins. Their outcomes have been applied to the solution of agricultural and horticultural problems, especially in relation to cereal grain quality and processing behaviour, and in human and ruminant nutrition. He has a special interest in the biology and chemistry of callose and related (1-3)-beta-D-glucans, and with Professor Adrienne Clarke, published a treatise on the subject in 1993. Currently with Dr Vilma Stanisich (Department of Microbiology), he is investigating the biosynthesis of a bacterial (1-3)-beta-D-glucan, curdlan.

Professor Stone twice held the position of Dean of the School of Biological Sciences at La Trobe (1976-78, 1987-91), was President of the Australian Biochemical Society (1988-90), Chairman of the RACI, Cereal Chemistry Division (1978-79). He is currently Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Cereal Science and Assistant-Director of the Australian Academy of Science and Technology's Crawford Fund, an organization supporting international agricultural research. He was awarded The F. B. Guthrie Award for Cereal Chemistry, Royal Australian Chemical Institute, Cereal Chemistry Division in 1985; the Philippine Biochemical Society Award for continuing contributions to biochemical research and education in the Philippines in 1991; held a Japan Society for the Promotion of Science Visiting Fellowship in 1988; was made a Corresponding Member of the American Society of Plant Physiologists in 2000 and received The Thomas Burr Osborne Award of the American Association of Cereal Chemists in 2004.