Cullis, Brian Senior Professor

Brian Cullis did his undergraduate studies at the University of Sydney, completing a BSc (Hons) in Mathematical Statistics in 1977. In 1978 he joined the then NSW Department of Agriculture (now NSW Department of Primary Industries: NSWDPI) and worked as a biometrician, initially in Sydney and then at the Agricultural Research Institute (ARI), Wagga Wagga. In 1982 he joined Siromath as a consultant biometrician. In 1984 he took a position with NSW Agriculture in 1984 at the Tamworth Research Centre. In 1986 he moved back to to the ARI, Wagga Wagga and remained there until resigning from NSWDPI in 2010. His career with NSWDPI involved assisting researchers with statistical aspects of their research projects, and included providing assistance with experimental design and analysis and preparation of scientific articles and reports. His career with NSWDPI provided an excellent environment for developing and enhancing his interests in applied statistics of relevance to the bio-sciences.
In 1987 he obtained his PhD from the University of New South Wales under the supervision of Professor Charles McGilchrist. This then led to his appointment to the Research Scientist classification, which is scale designed to recognise the importance of science in the public service by providing a career structure for scientists employed in the public service who execute and publish original research.". He progressed through efficiency barriers and higher levels until 2007 to be one of only three researchers in NSWDPI to be appointed as a Senior Principal Research Scientist. From 1994 he was also Research Leader, Biometrics, whose role was to provide administrative and scientific leadership direction of NSWDPI's biometrics program.
Professor Cullis resigned from NSWDPI in 2010 to take an appointment as the inaugural chair in Biometry at the University of Wollongong (UOW). This position was jointly funded by the Grains Research and Development Corporation (GRDC) and UOW.

Currently he is director of the Centre for Biometrics and Data Science in Sustainable Primary Industries in the National Institute for Applied Statistics Research (NIASRA). He had led numerous GRDC funded projects and also manages numerous other research consultancies on behalf of the Centre.

Professor Cullis has published over 150 scientific articles, is a co-developer of the ASReml software and has successfully supervised many Masters and PhD students. He is a past Co-Editor of Biometrics and as well as past chair of the International Programme Committee for the International Biometrics Conference held in Florence in 2014.

Professional Activities:

Member Biometrics Society, Australasian Region, 1978-
Associate Editor, Journal Agricultural Science Cambridge, 2004-
Associate Editor, Australian and New Zealand Journal of Statistics, 2009-2017
Chair of International Programme Committee for IBC 2014
Associate Editor Frontiers in Plant Science - Bioinformatics 2021-

Awards:

Including:
GRDC Training in statistical methods and support for plant variety evaluation,1996- 2001, $489,000
GRDC. Data management systems for crop variety evaluation trials, 1999-2002, $244,000
GRDC Statistical support for plant improvement, 2001-2004, $520,000
GRDC PhD studentship, 2002-2005, $83,000
GRDC PhD studentship, 2004-2006, $86,000
GRDC National Statistics Project KP1 and KP2, 2005-2008, $2,290,000
GRDC National Statistics Project KP3, 2006-2009, $463,000
GRDC Statistics for the Australian Grains Industry, 2008-2011, $2,440,000
GRDC Statistics for the Australian Grains Industry II, 2011-2016, $6,000,000
GRDC Capacity building in Biometry, 2010-2014, $600,000
RPBC PhD scholarship, 2013-2016, $105,000