Melbourne School of Land and Environment Department of Forest and Ecosystem Science

Dinesh Babu Madhavan

Department of Forest and Ecosystem Science
The University of Melbourne, Burnley Campus
500 Yarra Boulevard, Richmond, VIC 3121, Australia
Phone: +61 (0)3 9250 6820 Fax: +61 (0)3 9250 6886
Mobile: +61 (0)433 481 500
Email: d.madhavan@pgrad.unimelb.edu.au
Web: www.forestscience.unimelb.edu.au/

Degree

PhD

Thesis title

Measurement and use of edaphic variables to predict plantation growth and sustainability

Supervisors

Dr Tom Baker
Dr Chris Weston

Project outline

Soil organic matter and nutrient conservation, and fertiliser application are essential to maintain and improve the growth of intensively managed wood production plantations. Conventional and emerging techniques will be used to measure the capacity and intensity components of soil nutrient availability and correlate these with growth responses to fertiliser, or with growth decline due to nutrient removals or changes in nutrient forms or cycling during the rotation and the inter-rotation period. The work will focus on soil nutrient variables useful for incorporation into process-based growth models that can be efficiently measured and applied spatially.

The study is currently aiming to investigate the changes in soil carbon particulates and soil nutritional status during the rotation and the inter-rotation of plantation by employing Mid-infrared spectroscopy. This research work comes under CRC for Forestry's program - Managing and monitoring for growth and health.

Qualifications

  1. M.Sc., Horticulture (1999-2001). Horticultural College and Research Institute, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore, India
    Dissertation: Standardization of post-harvest life of Dendrobium orchids.
  2. B.Sc., Agriculture (1995-1999). Faculty of Agriculture, Annamalai University, Chidambaram, India. Allied project: Integrated dairy farming and utilization of its wastes in multi-cut forage production 
  3. Diploma in Office Automation (1999). Indian Computer Education Society, Vellore, India

Awards

  1. Thiru. S. Subramania Pillai 80th award for excellence in Soil Science (1996)
  2. Thiru G. Vaheesan Pillai Agri. award for distinction grade in Plant breeding (1997)
  3. Thiru G. Vaheesan Pillai Agri. award for eminence in Farm management (1998)
  4. Hindusthan Lever Limited (Unilever Ltd) best thesis and research award in Horticulture (2001)

Fellowship

Junior Research Fellow (1999-2001), ASPEE (American Spring & Pressing Works) Agriculture Research and Development Foundation

Work experience

  1. Horticulture Manager (2001-2002), Oberoi and Le Royal Meridien
  2. Consultant - Horticulture (2002-2003), AA. Nass Group, Kingdom of Bahrain
  3. Research and Development Manager (2003-2008), Massey Fergusson-TAFE Ltd, India

Scholarships for PhD (2008-2011)

Melbourne International Fee Remission Scholarship – University of Melbourne
Postgraduate studentship - CRC Forestry (APAI) Equivalent

Publications

Journal
Dinesh Babu, M., M. Jawaharlal and M. Vijayakumar. 2002. Effect of chemical preservatives in packaging of Dendrobium. Floriculture Research Trend in India. Indian Society of Ornamental Horticulture. pp 273-274

Dinesh Babu, M., M. Jawaharlal and M. Vijayakumar. 2002. Effect of packaging with lining materials on Dendrobium orchid. Floriculture Research Trend in India. Indian Society of Ornamental Horticulture. pp 275-276

Dineshbabu. M, M.Jawaharlal, T.S. Prabhakaran and R.Velmurugan (2001) Coconut oil - Its uniqueness and medicinal properties. Food and Pack. 1(9). pp15

Dinesh Babu, M., M. Jawaharlal and M. Vijayakumar. 2003. Influence of holding solutions on the post harvest life of Dendrobium hybrid Sonia-17. South Indian Horticulture. 50(4-6). pp 451-457

Seminar and Symposium
Dinesh Babu, M., M. Jawaharlal, T. Arumugam and M.Vijayakumar. 2002. Dendrobium packaging with lining materials on vaselife. Paper presented at “National Symposium on “Indian Floriculture in the New Millennium” held at Bangalore February 25-27, 2002. pp 53

Dinesh Babu, M., M. Jawaharlal, T. Arumugam and M. Vijayakumar. 2002. Effect of chemical preservatives in packaging to extend the vaselife of Dendrobium. Paper presented at “National Symposium on Indian Floriculture in the New Millennium” held at Bangalore February 25-27, 2002. pp 54

Jawaharlal, M., M. Dinesh Babu  and M. Vijayakumar. 2002. Effect of pulsing treatments on post harvest life of Dendrobium hybrid Sonia-17. Paper presented at “National Seminar on Emerging trends in Horticulture” held at Annamalai University, February 14-15, 2002. pp 55-57

Jawaharlal, M., M. Dinesh Babu and M. Vijayakumar. 2002. Effect of packaging with lining materials on Dendrobium orchid. Paper presented at “National Seminar on Emerging trends in Horticulture” held at Annamalai University, February 14-15, 2002. pp 57-59

Jawaharlal, M., M. Dinesh Babu, T. Arumugam and M. Vijayakumar. 2002. Effect of holding solutions on Dendrobium to extend the vaselife. Paper presented at “National Symposium on Indian Floriculture in the New millennium” held at Bangalore 25-27, February, 2002. pp. 28-30

Jawaharlal, M., M. Dinesh Babu, T. Arumugam, and M. Vijayakumar. 2002. Effect of pulsing treatments on Dendrobium to extend the vaselife. Paper presented at “National Symposium on Indian Floriculture in the New millennium” held at Bangalore, February 25-27, 2002. pp. 30-33

Jawaharlal, M., M. Dinesh Babu, B.A. Jerard and D. Keisar Lourdusamy. 2002. Estimation of nutrition from fruit wastes. Paper presented at “Seminar on Strategies on Environment Management” held at Mettupalayam, May 20-21,2002. pp 61-64

Jawaharlal, M., M. Dinesh Babu, S. Subramanian, D. Keisar Lourdusamy and B.A. Jerard.  2002. By product utilization from the fruit processing wastes. Paper presented at “Seminar on Strategies on Environment Management” held at Mettupalayam, May 20-21, 2002. pp 65-68

Jawaharlal, M., M. Dinesh Babu, B.A. Jerard and D. Keisar Lourdusamy. 2002. Natural dyes from forest tree species-an alternative to synthetic dyes. Paper presented at “Seminar on Strategies on Environment Management” held at Mettupalayam, May 20-21, 2002. pp 69-74

Singh SK., Dinesh Babu M.,  Ravi Natarajan and Srinivasan K. 2005. Mechanization in Horticultural Crops. Paper presented at “National Seminar on Role of Agricultural Engineers in Development of Cash Crops" held at Coimbatore, Mar 26-27, 2005.

M. Dinesh Babu, SK Singh, Ravi Natarajan and K. Srinivasan. 2006. Crop protection practices related to export of fresh mangoes. Paper presented at “National Seminar on Organic crop protection" held at Chennai, Nov 21-22, 2006

K. Srinivasan, SK Singh, Ravi Natarajan and M. Dinesh Babu, 2006. IT enabled Organic Crop Protection for Export Agriculture Promotion. Paper presented at “National Seminar on Organic crop protection" held at Chennai, Nov 21-22, 2006

Links:

Plantations & Health: http://www.forestscience.unimelb.edu.au/research/plantations_health/index.html

CRC Forestry: http://www.crcforestry.com.au/

 

 

 

 

Back to top
Postgraduate index page

 

top of page