At regular intervals the Cotton Catchment Communities CRC Chief Scientist, Professor Peter Gregg, will profile an Cotton CRC Achiever. The Cotton CRC Chief Scientist Award recognises excellence in research and /or extension. Winners of this award are acknowledged for their significant contribution in their field and toward the overall achievement of our Cotton CRC Strategic Goals.
- Cotton fibre research
20 22nd July Field To Fabric Course
Fibre Quality
This month’s featured Achiever is Renè van der Sluijs of CSIRO Materials Science and Engineering in Geelong. The award particularly recognises the tenth delivery of the Cotton Field to Fabric course, which has been one of the CRC’s flagship training ventures, and which Renè leads. This course has provided the means for growers to understand how their fibre is used and valued by spinners. It has also allowed others in the post farm‐gate value chain to understand how the crop is grown. The course has been adapted for selected market needs. For example it may be presented as a basic training program for retailers that which to better understand cotton fibre, from field to final garment.
Beyond his role in this course, Renè has made many major contributions to the CRC’s research and education programs. His expertise as a commercial spinner has been invaluable for the Australian cotton industry, and his applied research efforts have led to innovations in cotton processing. CSIRO has one of the few commercial scale research cotton spinning and finishing facilities in the southern hemisphere. With this facility Renè leads a number of key projects for the industry in understanding how mills can best use Australian cotton. For example, he helped develop new cotton fibre blends and produced fabric samples for use by the industry in promoting its cotton to domestic brand owners and international mills.
Renè leads the international mill trial program in the use of Australian premium cotton types, and has also been a key researcher in surveying international mills. The data collected from this work will be used to direct future R&D programs for the industry. Renè also led a project that assessed the level of contamination in Australian cotton. This work helped validate a key quality attribute of Australian cotton – we have the lowest level of contamination compared to our key competitive markets
We therefore recognise Renè for sustained efforts across the entire spectrum of post farm‐gate research and delivery in the CRC, and for the cotton industry as a whole.
