The Scottish Society for Crop Research’s affairs are managed by a Committee of Management, currently consisting of the following: Dr K. Dawson (Chairman), Mr E. Anderson (Vice-Chair), Mr I.E. Ivory (Trustee), Dr S. Wale (Trustee), Mr E. Grewar, Mr C. Herron, Mr G. Rennie, Mr P. Thomson, Mr George Lawrie, Mr Archie Gibson and Professor C. Campbell. Day-to-day matters are handled by the Honorary Secretary, Dr Joanne Russell.
The society functions through its crop sub-committees for combinable and energy crops, potatoes and soft fruit, which are chaired respectively by Messrs. Dawson, Gibson and Thomson. The secretaries of these committees are Dr Joanne Russell, Dr Jennie Brierley and Dr Susan McCallum, all of whom are based at the James Hutton Institute.
SSCR has been the recipient of various bequests and other funds over the years. These have been invested to provide an annual income which is used for the following purposes:
- to organise field and crop walks, and meetings for the exchange of information
- to finance science-based publications for the benefit of the membership
- to maintain contact, through the crop sub-committees, with members with specialised interests
- to support research on topics of particular relevance to members which would not otherwise be funded by other organisations
- to ‘pump-prime’ research at the James Hutton Institute to open up new areas of interest with the purpose of generating much greater funding in the future.
The society supports and or sponsors the James Hutton Institute's three agri-science field events, namely: Fruit for the Future, Arable Scotland and Potatoes in Practice to bring new varieties and agronomy methods to the notice of members.
In addition, the combinable and energy crops, potato and soft fruit sub-committees organise winter meetings and information days to disseminate research findings and other information of relevance to their respective industries.
SSCR also administers the Peter Massalski Prize on behalf of its donors, Professor and the late Mrs T. Massalski. The prize is awarded every second year to the best young scientist, under the age of 36, working at the James Hutton Institute. The prize was presented in memory of Dr Peter Massalski who was working at the Institute at the time of his death.
If you have any comments or suggestions regarding the SSCR website then please email Joanne Russell.
