The biochemist and molecular biologist is now a professor at the Australian National University (ANU) in Canberra.

Professor Pogson was also one of 300 world leading experts to gather in Rome for a United Nations forum on How to Feed the World in 2050.

But last Monday it was a different honour, when he returned to his alma mater to have a Year 7 class named after him.

Professor Pogson said by naming the classes after different former students such as himself and Darren Beadman, current pupils were being shown the different career paths that are open to them.

“Today I helped Year 7 students take DNA out of a strawberry,” he said.

“I then spoke to the Year 10 and 11s about career opportunities and what I do.”

Graduating from Moss Vale High in 1980. Professor Pogson initially tried a career in banking as a bank clerk.

“I did like science at school, I can’t say that I loved it,” Professor Pogson said.

“I had some good science teachers when I was at school, one in particular, Brian Copeland.

“I was good at science, I liked it, but I wasn’t convinced I was going to be a scientist.”

Professor Pogson, the son of a local dentist and physiotherapist, has fond memories of his high school years.

“It can be mixture of good and bad. Sometimes the school ground can be a tough place to be, sometimes you enjoyed it, sometimes you didn’t. Overall I have warm memories of the place,” he said.

More students are electing to take up biology and medicine at university, because of television shows such as CSI and the Human Genome Project.

Completed in 2003, project was working to identify all the approximately 20,000-25,000 genes in human DNA as well as to determine the sequences of the three billion chemical base pairs that make up human DNA,

Areas of science that weren’t attracting students included mathematics, geology, chemistry and physics.

Professor Pogson spoke to the students of the career possibilities that science holds.

And who would have thought a boy from Moss Vale would be joining the ranks of other great minds talking about the food crisis that is facing the planet.

“As the world dries out and agriculture yields drop and the population doubles, how are we are actually going to feed the world in 2050,” Professor Pogson said.

“This conference considered what we’ll need to do from a science perspective, from a policy perspective, development aid to Africa and Asia.

“How will we make a farmer’s life a better one? How will we literally produce enough food to feed ourselves in 2050?

“It shows that kids from Moss Vale can do anything.”