Directors - Waite Agricultural Research Institute (1924-2009) and Waite Research Institute (2010--)
Professor Arnold Edwin Victor Richardson, DSc (Melb), MA, 1924-1938
Professor James Arthur Prescott, CBE, DSc, FRAI, FRS, FAA, 1938-1955
Dr James Melville, CMG, MSc (NZ), PhD (Lond.), DUniv (Adel), 1956-1973, (Emeritus Professor 1974)
Professor James Patrick Quirk, AO, BScAgr (Syd), PhD, DSc (Lond), Hon DAgrSc (Louvain), FAIAS, FRACI, FANZAAS, FTS, FAA, 1974-1989, (Emeritus Professor 1990)
Professor Harold William Woolhouse, BSc (Hons) (Reading), PhD, Hon DSc (East Anglia) 1990-1996
Professor John Malcolm Oades, AM, BSc (Hons), PhD (Leeds), DUniv (Adel), DSc (Leeds) 1996-2001 (Emeritus Professor 2002)
Professor Geoffrey Bruce Fincher, BAgSc, PhD (Melb), 2003-2009 (Emeritus Professor 2015)
Professor Roger Leigh, BSc, MA (Camb), PhD (Wales), CBiol, FIBiol, 2010-2012 (Emeritus Professor 2014)
Professor Michael James Wilkinson, BSc (Hons), PhD (Leic), 2013-2014