Dr John Radcliffe, who currently chairs the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences & Engineering (ATSE) Water Forum, has been appointed chairperson of the Australian Water Recycling Centre of Excellence Research Advisory Committee.

Radcliffe said he was delighted to be asked to take up the role.

"I believe that the Centre of Excellence has an important part to play in progressing water recycling research and development in Australia," he said. "The centre can help the nation both prepare for its own growth, and potentially contribute to greater international adoption of water recycling, including among other things, to meeting an expanding world food demand."

Radcliffe is a council member of the University of Adelaide and chairman of the Commonwealth Department of Agriculture, Fisheries & Forestry Eminent Scientists Group

Previously a commissioner with the National Water Commission, deputy chief executive of the Commonwealth Scientific & Industrial Research Organisation and South Australian director-general of agriculture, Radcliffe was chair of the board of the South Australian Research & Development Institute from 1993 to 1998.

He is author of Water Recycling in Australia published by ATSE in 2004, as well as an update on water recycling in Australia published in Water Science and Technology in 2010.