Areas of expertise

• Laboratory Information Management Systems (LIMS)
• Data analysis, data structure and report production
• Laboratory operations
• Diagnostic and analytical testing (animal health, plant health & chemistry)
• Quality management systems
• Emergency disease response operations

Background

Greg Croft is the NSW Department of Primary Industries Laboratory Information Officer with state wide responsibilities for the management of, and production of reports on, information generated by the Department’s Diagnostic and Analytical Laboratories.

Greg joined NSW Agriculture* in 1972 as a laboratory technician and has undertaken laboratory testing in all areas covered by the Department’s laboratory services. He has over 35 years laboratory experience including; veterinary pathology (20 yrs), plant pathology (3 yrs), molecular biology (I yr), chemistry (5 yrs), quality management (4 yrs) and Information Management (8 yrs).

He is currently the Diagnostic and Analytical Laboratories’ Information Project Officer and is stationed at the Wagga Wagga Agricultural Institute. A long term member of the LIMS Project Team he has held roles of Project Manager, Document Manager, joint System Administrator and has been responsible for the configuration of the LIMS to cover the laboratory testing aspects of this application.

*NSW Department of Primary Industries was formed on July 1, 2004 through an amalgamation of NSW Agriculture, NSW Fisheries, State Forests of NSW and the NSW Department of Mineral Resources.

Qualifications

• B. App. Sc. (Clinical and Laboratory Science) – Charles Sturt University

Current priorities

• Implementation of the LIMS across all Departmental Diagnostic and Analytical Laboratories
• Provide support, training and development for users of the LIMS
• Documentation of processes and procedures for use of the LIMS
• Capture, structure and maintain data related to laboratory testing 
• Analyse and recover laboratory information according to the requirements of the Department’s various users of information
• Maintain a preparedness and provide LIMS support for emergency disease response operations

Select Publications

LIMS Users Manual. NSW DPI Internal Publication.

Ata-ur-Rehman, Greg Croft, Harsh Raman and Barbara Read (2002) High Throughput DNA Isolation Method for Routine Marker Assisted Selection in Barley; Proceedings Australian Barley Technical Symposium, Canberra, 2002.

Ata-ur-Rehman and Greg Croft (2002) A Simple and Effective Method for Handling Polyacrylamide (PAGE) Gels after Electrophoresis; Proceedings Australian Barley Technical Symposium, Canberra, 2002.

Wong PTW, Mead JA and Croft MG (2002) Effect of temperature, moisture, soil type and Trichoderma species on the survival of Fusarium pseudograminearum in wheat straw; Australian Plant Pathology, 2002, 31, 253-257.

The Prevalence of Anthelmintic Resistance in Nematodes of Sheep in Southern New South Wales; 1992 International Parasitology Conference Proceedings, Auckland  New Zealand.

Charles E Lewis, Martin G Croft.(1976)  Modifications to the Hanus Iodine Absorption Number Method. Journal of the Association of Official Analytical Chemistry Vol 59.

Professional associations and activities

• SampleManager Users Group

Keyword/phrase list of interests or areas of expertise

• Information management 
• Data storage 
• Data analysis
• Data recovery
• Laboratory operations
• Animal health testing
• Plant health testing
• Chemical analysis
• Emergency disease response