ProfessorLuis Apiolaza

I co-organized the Revisiting Eucalypts Workshop, Wood Technology Research Centre. 12 February 2009, Christchurch, New Zealand. This workshop was organized to: i - kickstart the idea of establishing eucalypts in NZ drylands, ii - gauge the level of understanding of this problem from a research viewpoint and iii - gather support for future grant applications. (2009)

Chairman, organizing committee of Australasian Forest Genetics Conference 2011, coordinating work for the November 2011 conference to be held in Christchurch, which was cancelled (see under Canterbury Earthquakes Special Circumstances). (2009 - present)

Member of the Technical Committee, Southern Tree Breeding Association (Australia's tree breeding co-operative for radiata pine and gum trees) in 2002-2003.

I am invited speaker (with all expenses paid) in the Latin American Congress "Increasing the Latin American Forestry Sector Competitiveness Through Genetically Improved Eucalypts" in Pucon, Chile. 22-23 November 2012.

Invitation as sub-plenary speaker ("Resources for the future" theme) for the IUFRO 2012 Wood Products conference (2011-present) with presentation "Small (and quick) is beautiful: understanding and exploiting genetic variation of wood quality in corewood". This International Union of Forest Research Organizations Congress is the largest meeting in my research area. This invitation recognizes my work on very early screening for wood quality and its potential impact on breeding programs for fast growing species.

Invited as speaker by the Genomics Program of FONDEF (Chilean Research Development Fund) for a fruit improvement workshop on "Modern quantitative genetics analyses using ASReml-R". This invitation recognizes my expertise in quantitative genetics and use of statistical genetics software. (2011)

I gave three different presentations to staff of the Japanese Tree Breeding Centre on: 1. Breeding objectives for radiata pine (in Hitachi and Tsukuba). 2. Making sense of Genotype by Environment interaction in New Zealand (in Hitachi and Sapporo). 3. Very early screening for wood quality (in Hitachi, Sapporo, Kyoto and Kumamoto). (August 2009)

Two 90 minute interactive webinar presentations for FWPA (Forest & Wood Products Australia) forestry levypayers across all States in Australia (6th August 2010 and 7th November 2011), jointly with Dr John Walker. Primarily reviewing FRST-Compromised Wood research with emphasis on tools and technologies and practical strategies for adoption.

Day workshop in Melbourne for Forest and Wood Products Australia (FWPA), the forestry and wood industry's service provider for research and development. Twelve levy-paying members attended from NSW, QLD, SA and VIC including three State Forest Departments. Dr Walker and I gave a series of presentations and demonstrations on wood quality and breeding issues geared towards implementation by breeding programs in individual companies. 19th May 2011

Keynote speaker at IUFRO Forest Tree Breeding Conference, Prague, Czech Republic, 25-29 August

Keynote speaker at IUFRO Conference "Breeding for Value in a Changing World", Jacksonville FL, USA, 4-7 February