Winthrop Professor Hans Lambers research in plant biology has focused on respiration, growth analysis, and mineral nutrition, by integrating physiology and biochemistry at whole plant and vegetation levels.
He has provided new information on the quantitative significance of respiration in the carbon budget of plants, dependent on species and environment, offering a clear explanation of why slow-growing plants typically respire relatively fast.
Since his move to UWA in 1998, Hans Lambers has greatly enhanced our understanding of the mineral nutrition of Australian plants.
His team discovered why phosphate fertilisation readily leads to phosphate toxicity in native species. He has written a major textbook in plant physiological ecology, translated into Chinese and Persian. A second edition was published in 2008.
In 1992 Hans Lambers became the Inaugural Head of the School of Plant Biology. He has been Editor in Chief of Plant and Soil since 1992. He served as President of the Australian Society of Plant Physiologists for three years (2001-2003).
The regard in which he's held internationally is evidenced by his appearance on the very first ISI list of highly cited authors in plant and animal science.
His election as Fellow of the Hollandsche Maatschappij der Wetenschappen (the Dutch Academy of Sciences; 1997), his Honorary Professorship at China Agricultural University, Beijing (2002), and his election as Fellow of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (2003) also testify to his high international reputation.
