(i) Graduated from Cambridge University, UK with First Class Honurs in Botany, 1966
(ii) PhD in Plant virology at St Andrews University awarded in 1972
(ii) In 1970-1972 employed in plant virology in a medical school at Birmingham University, UK with limited facilities for research on plants which detracted from research opportunities. In 1973, unemployed for 4 months, and employed in a non research position at Oxford University, UK for 3 months before taking up a research position in South America. In 2000-2003, significant non-research administrative responsibilities as Section Manager, Plant Pathology, DAFWA significantly restricted research outputs.
(iii) During 2006-2010, I have been free of significant non-research responsibilities. In 2010, obtained a Research Professorship at UWA enhancing prospects for research over those at DAFWA.
POSTGRADUATE EXPERIENCE
1966-69 Potato Marketing Board Research Studentship in the Virology Section, Scottish Horticultural Research Institute, Dundee, Scotland, under the supervision of Dr B.D. Harrison.
1969-72 Research Fellow in the Virology Department, University of Birmingham, England, on Agricultural Research Council grant to Professor P. Wildy.
1973-75 Post Doctorate Virologist in the Pathology Department of the International Potato Center, Lima, Peru.
EMPLOYMENT
1975-78 Coordinator in Virology, International Potato Center.
1979-1983 Head of Virology Section, MAFF Harpenden Laboratory.
1984-1986 Head of the Research and Development group in the Virology Branch formed by combination of MAFF Cambridge and Harpenden Virology Sections.
1986-1990 Plant Virologist for Western Australia.
1992-1999 Leader Crop Disease Program, Co-operative Research Centre for Legumes in Mediterranean Agriculture, Western Australia.
2000-2003 Section Manager, Plant Pathology, Department of Agriculture for Western Australia
2004-2010 Adjunct Professor of Plant Virology, Murdoch University, Perth, Western Australia
2005-2011 Adjunct Professor of Plant Virology, University of Western Australia, Perth
2010- Professor of Plant Virology, University of Western Australia, Perth

Roger Jones has successfully used basic and applied research to address real world problems and is recognised internationally for his contributions, especially those that address practical aspects of virus disease problems of significance to global agriculture. His research has involved diverse pathosystems including viruses of cereals, oilseeds, grain and pasture legumes, root and tuber crops, vegetables, weeds and native plants. His research themes include discovering and describing new viruses, epidemiology, ecology, spatial and temporal analyses of epidemics, transmission by vectors and seed, control measures, predictive modelling, devising detection procedures and studies on virus aetiology, phylogeny and emergence.

His research provided critical new understanding of epidemiological components of diverse virus pathosystems operating under Mediterranean-type climatic conditions (very dry summer, wet winter). These included viruses of annual arable crops,cereals and canola. They also included viruses of dryland annual and irrigated perennial pasture legumes and grasses. His studies emphasised (i) the importance of seed transmission in annual hosts for virus survival during the dry summer period in the absence of irrigation, and (ii) the critical roles in development of epidemics played by proximity to virus inoculum sources (external and internal) and weather conditions favouring build-up of vectors before annual crop or pasture plants germinate. His research also provided important new understanding of the epidemiological components of diverse plant virus pathosystems operating in irrigated vegetable crops growing under Mediterranean, subtropical and tropical climatic conditions.

Jones conducted many large-scale surveys quantifying virus incidence in vegetable, cucurbit, grain legume, oilseed and cereal crops, and legume pastures. These surveys were complemented by large-scale field experiments to quantify virus-induced yield and quality losses. His pasture studies were the first to ephasise the critical effect of virus infection in one plant species on the species balance in mixed swards. Combining survey with loss data provided a clear picture of the economic importance of each pathosystem.

Through epidemiological studies, field experimentation and/or theoretical insights, he provided critical new understanding of how different types of virus control measures (host resistance, phytosanitary, cultural, chemical, biological) operate and can be combined within effective integrated virus disease management (IDM) approaches. His IDM ideas were widely adopted globally. With modellers, he developed the first effective forecasting models for virus epidemics that incorporate weather variables and automated weather data retrieval.
Jones’ research involving identifying resistance-breaking strains or selecting them from wild-type strains, finding and characterizing new virus resistances in diverse crops and addressing challenges faced by plant breeders in dealing with strain specific virus resistance was widely appreciated internationally. He provided important new understanding of viruses of Andean tuber (especially potato), root and other crops. He was the first to identify Pepino mosaic virus which later caused serious problems in tomato production worldwide. Other noteworthy research includes devising new or improved procedures for large-scale virus detection and providing important new understanding of the biological properties, and phylogeny of introduced and indigenous viruses in Australia.

Jones has published >200 primary refereed research papers and >40 international reviews or refereed book chapters on diverse aspects of plant virology, e.g. the first comprehensive review on plant viruses and climate change, a highly cited review on virus emergence, and several highly cited reviews on virus control measures. Total citations to June 2017 are 77434. In Peru, UK and Australia, Jones’ has acted as mentor for many young plant virologists, and supervised or co-supervised to completion 14 PhD, 8 MSc and many Honours students. He organised or co-organised >10 national and international scientific conferences in the UK, Australia, India, Peru and Germany, and co-edited a book and three special epidemiology issues of Virus Research.

He is a fellow of the Australian Institute of Agricultural Science and Technology (2002), the Australasian Plant Pathology Society (2003) and the American Phytopathological Society (2014). He was Virology Convenor for the Association of Applied Biologists (1983-1986), Chairman of the Plant Virus Epidemiology Committee, International Society for Plant Pathology (1999-2007), Pathology (1999-2007), and Executive Secretary, International Working Group on Legume Viruses (2002-2005).

1. Plant viruses and Climate Change
2. Virus ecology in natural and managed systems
3. Plant virus evolution
4. Plant virus epidemiology and control
5. Integrated Virus Disease Management systems
6. Modelling plant virus epidemics

Funding obtained in relation to ARC competitive grants, 2006-2013.
1. ARC Linkage. R Jones, M Renton, B. Coutts. Determination of factors responsible for pea seed-borne mosaic virus epidemics in peas and development of effective virus management tools.
LP120200224, $210,000 for 2013-2016.
2. ARC Linkage LP0882671, M Jones, K Dixon, R Jones, K Seaton, Assessing plant virus threats to indigenous Western Australian flora: implications for biodiversity, conservation, ecosystem reclamation and the wildflower industry, $332,631.
3.ARC Discovery DP0771097, M Jones, R Jones” Molecular dissection of resistance to subterranean clover mottle virus using Medicago truncatula, $300.000
4. ARC Linkage LP0668429 M Jones, R Jones, G Dwyer, “Molecular tools for controlling pathogenic viruses in the seed potato industry”, $150,000.
5. ARC Linkage LP056177, M. Barbetti, K. Sivasithamparam, R. Jones, D. Phillips, “Detection and elimination of resting spores of Olpidium vectoring lettuce big-vein disease in lettuce seedling nursery production”, $87,000
6. ARC Linkage LP0560884, K. Siddique , R. Jones, A. Diggle. “Predictive models and decision support systems for virus diseases and aphid vectors of lupin and canola”. $123,684.

Funding obtained in relation to non-ARC competitive grants
1. CRC for Plant Biosecurity. R. Jones [UWA], O. Edwards [CSIRO], B. Coutts [DAFWA], Wind spread of plant viral pathogens into northern Australia - $164,000 for 2014-16.
2. GRDC, A. Hoffman [Univ. Melb.], R. Jones [UWA], ‘Wheat curl mite, wheat streak mosaic and high plains viruses: detection, transmission, epidemiology and management’, R. Jones - $416,234 for 2010-2014 Grains Research & Development Corporation (GRDC), A. Hoffman [Univ. Melb.], R. Jones [UWA], ‘Wheat curl mite, wheat streak mosaic and high plains viruses: detection, transmission, epidemiology and management’, R. Jones virus component $257 for 2010-2013.
3. Grains Research & Development Corporation (GRDC), W. MacLeod [UWA], R. Jones [UWA], B. Coutts [DAFWA], ‘Western region fungal and viral IDM research and development’, R. Jones/B. Coutts virus component $255,000 for 2010-2013.
4. Horticulture Aust (HAL), M. Barbetti, R. Jones [UWA], B. Rodoni (DPI-Vic) and S. McKirdy (CRC PlantBiosecurity), ‘Phylogeny, pathogenicity and epidemiology of potato spindle tuber viroid (PSTVd) and related pospoviroids in Australia’, R. Jones/M. Barbetti component $259,500 for 2009-2012.
4.Horticulture Aust (HAL), B. Coutts [DAFWA], R. Jones [UWA], D. Persley [DPI-Q], ‘Developing and communicating management strategies for controlling virus diseases in cucurbit crops’, R. Jones/B. Coutts component $272,500 for 2007-2010.
5. 5.Horticulture Aust (HAL), D. Persley [DPI-Q], R. Jones [UWA], B. Coutts [DAFWA], ‘Integrated viral disease management in vegetable crops’, R. Jones/B. Coutts component $110,000 for 2008-2010.
6. Grains Research & Development Corporation (GRDC), R. Jones [UWA], ‘Developing a sensitive dry seed test to detect seed-borne viruses in bulk seed samples of wheat’, $462,000 for 2006-2008.

EMPLOYMENT
1975-78 Coordinator in Virology, International Potato Center.
1979-1983 Head of Virology Section, MAFF Harpenden Laboratory.
1984-1986 Head of the Research and Development group in the Virology Branch formed by combination of MAFF Cambridge and Harpenden Virology Sections.
1986-1990 Plant Virologist for Western Australia.
1992-1999 Leader Crop Disease Program, Co-operative Research Centre for Legumes in Mediterranean Agriculture, Western Australia.
2000-2003 Section Manager, Plant Pathology, Department of Agriculture for Western Australia
2004-2010 Adjunct Professor of Plant Virology, Murdoch University, Perth, Western Australia
2005-2011 Adjunct Professor of Plant Virology, University of Western Australia, Perth
2010-2015 Research Professor University of Western Australia, Perth
2016-present Adjunct Professor, Institute of Agriculture, University of Western Australia, Perth, and Principal Research Officer, Department of Agriculture and Food, Perth.

Currently fully Funded:

CRC for Plant Biosecurity. R. Jones [UWA], O. Edwards [CSIRO], B. Coutts [DAFWA], Wind spread of plant viral pathogens into northern Australia - $164,000 for 2014-16.
3. GRDC, A. Hoffman [Univ. Melb.], R. Jones [UWA], ‘Wheat curl mite, wheat streak mosaic and high plains viruses: detection, transmission, epidemiology and management’, R. Jones - $416,234 for 2010-2014.

"Viruses of Cucurbits". Royalties for regions, R.Jones - $765,000 2015-2018
Other projects:
-Climate change and plant viruses.
-Viruses at the agro-ecological interface.
-Deep sequencing of virus genomes.
- Modelling virus epidemics.
- Ecology of viruses in native plants, mixed species pasture and crops.

Relevance to Agriculture, Horticulture, and Conservation

SUPERVISED OR CO-SUPERVISED FOR HIGHER DEGREES
• Currently supervising or co-supervising 2 PhD students
• Supervised or co-supervised 12 PhD, 8 MSc and 12 Honours students in South America, UK or Australia at different stages of my career without being University based between 1974 and 2009

South America

Armando Rodriguez (Colombian), Msc.
Arturo Moreira (Bolivian), Msc.
Franklin Santillan (Ecuadorian), Msc.

Europe
Sally Adams, PhD.
Elisabeth Newton, PhD.
Christine Henry, PhD.
Christine Dolby, Msc.
(Four sandwich students' (Honours) projects also supervised successfully)

Australia
Calum Wilson, PhD.
Worayudh Pathipanawat, PhD.
Simon McKirdy, PhD.
Rose Njeru PhD, PhD.
John Fosu Nyarko PhD.
Sheila Mortimer-Jones, PhD.
Linda Maccarone, PhD.
Eviness Nygalugwe, PhD.
Brenda Coutts -PhD.
Monica Kehoe - PhD.
Benjamin Congdon - PhD.
Alison Mackie - PhD.
Lindrea Latham, MSc.
Eviness Nygalugwe, MSc.
Stewart Vincent, MSc.
Wayne Proudlove, Msc.

(Eight Honours students' projects also supervised successfully)

RESEARCH THEMES
• Plant virus ecology
• Discovering and describing new viruses
• Aetiology
• Vector transmission of soil-borne, aphid-borne and contact-transmitted viruses
• Seed transmission
• Epidemiology
• Identifying virus resistance sources and characterising virus resistances
• Resistance-breaking strains
• Developing, cultural and chemical control measures and integrated virus disease management approaches
• Researching viruses of potatoes, Andean root and tuber crops, grain and pasture legumes, oilseeds, cereals and vegetables
• Improving virus detection procedures and conducting large-scale surveys
Quantifying yield losses through large-scale field experimentation

English
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