Dr Pat Blackall leads the Safe and Quality Food Production programme at the Poultry Cooperative Research Centre, where his colleagues have noted the "positive impact" he has had on the sector.

Welcomed by his peers as "well deserved" the award follows a great amount of respect earned from industry and work colleagues, said the Poultry CRC.

He graduated from the University of Queensland in 1973 with a degree in microbiology and joined the Department of Primary Industries Animal Research Institute, Yeerongpilly, Brisbane as a diagnostic bacteriologist.

Dr Blackall became a full time research scientist in 1980 and completed a PhD at University of Queensland in 1987. In 2010, his laboratory moved to a new site at the EcoSciences Precinct Dutton Park Brisbane with he seconded to the University of Queensland.

His role as research scientist expanded to include editorship of the Journal of Applied Microbiology and the Journal of Veterinary Diagnostic Investigation, as well as Research Manager for the Poultry Co-Operative Research Centre. Since 1977, he has been the leader of over 30 externally funded research projects with a total value of over four million dollars.

Dr Blackall is also a member of the Editorial Boards of a number of scientific journals, including Avian Diseases. He has been a member of the Chicken Meat Committee of RIRDC for approximately eight years, voluntarily taking on the role of providing a clearing house function for international research in areas relevant to the Chicken Meat Program.