Staff profile

Qualifications

Philip Keane gained a Bachelor of Agricultural Science (Hons) at the Waite Agricultural Research Institute - University of Adelaide in 1968. He completed a Ph.D. at the University of Papua New Guinea in 1972 for studies of Oncobasidium Theobromae, responsible for vascular-streak dieback, a serious disease of cocoa. He taught at that university before coming to La Trobe University in 1975.

Teaching areas

• BIO1PS - Plant Science
• BOT3FEB - Plant Biotechnology - analysis of plant gene function, plant genomics and genetics
• AGR3PPD - Agriculture 3 Plant Pests and Diseases - lecturer in plant pathology

Research interests

• Fungal diseases of crop plants and eucalypts
• The nature of resistance to crop diseases, especially cereal rusts
• Diseases of cocoa in South East Asia and Papua New Guinea
• Agricultural development and education in tropical countries
• Plant disease epidemiology
• Plant ecology
• Diversity of macrofungi
  

Current major research project:
Selection for resistance to pest and disease problems in cocoa in Sulawesi, Indonesia. (financed by the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research)
Post-doctoral fellow : Dr. Peter McMahon

Recent publications and presentations

• Carnegie, A.J., Keane, P.J. and Podger, F.D. (1997). The impact of three species of Mycosphaerella newly recorded on Eucalyptus in Western Australia. Australasian Plant Pathology 26, 71-77.
• Carnegie, A.J., Ades, P.K., Keane, P.J. and Smith, I.W. (1998). Mycosphaerella diseases of juvenile foliage in a eucalypt species and provenance trial in Victoria, Australia. Australian Forestry 61, 190-194.
• Launonen, T.M., Ashton, D.H. and Keane, P.J. (1999). The effect of regeneration burns on the growth, nutrient acquisition and mycorrhizae of Eucalyptus regnans F. Muell. (mountain ash) seedlings. Plant and Soil 210, 273-283.
• Park, R.F., Keane, P.J., Wingfield, M.J. and Crous, P.W. (2000). Fungal diseases of eucalypt foliage. p. 153-239. In Diseases and Pathogens of Eucalypts. Ed. P.J. Keane, G.A. Kile, F.D. Podger and B.N. Brown. CSIRO Publishing, Melbourne, 2000.
• Podger, F.D. and Keane, P.J. (2000). Management of disease in native forests and woodlands. p. 445-475. In Diseases and Pathogens of Eucalypts. Ed. P.J. Keane, G.A. Kile, F.D. Podger and B.N. Brown. CSIRO Publishing, Melbourne, 2000.
• Keane, P.J., Kile, G.A., Podger, F.D. and Brown, B.N. (Eds.) Diseases and Pathogens of Eucalypts. CSIRO Publishing, Melbourne, 2000, 565pp.
• Agus Purwantara, Andre Drenth, Sze Flett, Wendy Guppy and Philip J. Keane (2001). Diversity of Phytophthora clandestina isolated from subterranean clover in southern Australia: analysis of virulence and RAPD profiles. European Journal of Plant Pathology 107, 305-311.
• Barber, P.A., Smith, I.W. and Keane, P.J. (2003). Foliar diseases of Eucalyptus spp. grown for ornamental cut foliage. Australasian Plant Pathology 32, 109-111.