International Plant Breeding Symposium

Jorge A. Acosta-Gallegos

Dr. Jorge A. Acosta-Gallegos is a traditional plant breeder that has a passion for exploring the Mexican mountains in search for wild Phaseolus beans. As a result of that hobby he has contributed with a few hundred accessions to the germplasm banks of INIFAP and CIAT. After graduating as an agronomist in 1972 he started working at the National Agricultural Research Institute (now INIFAP) on rainfed dry beans of the semiarid highlands of the state of Durango. The main emphases of his breeding efforts In Durango were drought adaptation and disease resistance, mainly to root-rots and anthracnose. After graduating from Michigan State University in 1988, he released several improved cultivars, the most important of which was "Pinto Villa", a cultivar that dominated its commercial seed class in the semiarid highlands of Mexico for over a decade. He has also collaborated in the Latin-American project of the Bean/Cowpea-CRSP for more than twenty years. From 1991 until 2002 he worked in a sub-humid temperate environment in Central Mexico, mostly concentrating on breeding beans with multiple disease resistance. During the last four years he has built a new breeding program in the Bajío region where he now lives. There, he aims to develop bean cultivars belonging to half a dozen commercial seed classes that are adapted to either irrigated or rainfed conditions. During the course of his carrier, Dr. Acosta has participated in the development of more than twenty improved dry bean cultivars.

James Anderson

James Anderson is a professor in the Department of Agronomy and Plant Genetics at the University of Minnesota. He obtained his B.S. degree in Agronomy from the University of Minnesota in 1987, M.S. in Crop Science (Plant Breeding) from the University of Kentucky in 1989, and a Ph.D. in Plant Breeding from Cornell University in 1992. His previous positions include Assistant Professor at North Dakota State University and Research Geneticist with the USDA-ARS, Pullman, Washington. Dr. Anderson has been working in the areas of wheat breeding and genetics since 1989. He has contributed to the development of 11 released wheat cultivars and authored/co-authored 61 articles in peer-reviewed journals. His major research effort is the genetic investigations of complexly inherited traits including grain quality and disease resistance. Recent research has focused on Fusarium head blight and leaf rust resistance and incorporating resistance into new cultivars using marker-assisted ! selection. Dr. Anderson received the Crop Science Society of America’s Young Crop Scientist Award in 1998.

Sven Bode Andersen

Sven Bode Andersen is professor of plant breeding at the Royal Veterinary and Agricultural University, Denmark with a MSc in Horticulture 1980 and a Ph.D. in plant breeding 1983. Research focused on haploid production for breeding of horticultural and agricultural species and the use of molecular markers for diversity evaluation and to speed up breeding programmes.

Marianne Banziger

Marianne Banziger is the Director for CIMMYT's Global Maize Program. She obtained her PhD in crop physiology at the Swiss Institute of Technology (ETH) in Zurich Switzerland in 1992. She joined CIMMYT as a Post-Doctoral Fellow and Scientist, before she moved to southern Africa in 1996. Dr. Banziger's research focuses on the abiotic stress tolerance in maize, in particular drought and low soil fertility, environmental characterization of maize growing environments, and use of molecular markers in drought breeding. In southern Africa, she initiated and led maize germplasm development network targeted at stress-prone environments which involved well over 50 organizations, including NARS, NGOs, the private seed sector, farmer organizations, universities and regional organizations. This partnership developed, evaluated and deployed so far over 45,000 tons of seed of stress tolerant maize varieties to smallholder farmers in Africa.

Gerard Barry

Dr. Gerard Barry joined the International Rice Research Institute (www.irri.org) in November 2003 as the Coordinator of the Golden Rice Network (www.goldenrice.org), and is also the HarvestPlus Rice Crop Team Leader (www.harvestplus.org), and Head of IRRI's Intellectual Property Management Unit. Prior to joining IRRI, Dr. Barry spent more than 20 years with Monsanto Company in St. Louis, USA, where he had various responsibilities, including co-head of the Rice Business Team, head of the Rice Genome and Rice Genomics projects, and Director of Research for developing country research cooperation. He received B.Sc. and M Sc. degrees from University College, Cork, Ireland, and his Ph.D. from Columbia University in New York, and he was formerly Charge de Recherche at the Institut Pasteur in Paris. Dr. Barry is co-inventor on 20 patents, co-author of more than 50 research articles, and has been a frequent invited speaker at international conferences.

William D Beavis

Most often cited for his discovery of bias in estimates of genetic effects from QTL analyses of segregating populations (the "Beavis Effect"), Dr. Beavis gained extensive experience in the application of statistical genetic methods during his twelve years at Pioneer-Dupont. Since joining NCGR in 1998, Dr. Beavis has been the principal investigator for a variety of bioinformatics projects, including The Arabidopsis Information Resource (TAIR), GeneX and GeneX-Lite gene expression systems, the Legume Information System (LIS), the Legume Information Network (LIN) and the Genome Explorer and Survey of Immunological Response (GEySIR) system. Currently, Dr. Beavis is developing novel methods, based on Bayesian inference, to identify global gene expression patterns associated with genotypes. Dr. Beavis received his Ph.D. degree in Plant Breeding and Statistics from the Iowa State University in Ames, Iowa. He holds an M.S degree in Interdisciplinary Biology-Statistics from New Mexico State University in Las Cruces, NM and a B.S. degree in Range Management from Humboldt State University, Arcata, California. Since 2003, Dr. Beavis is also an Adjunct Professor in the Department of Mathematics and Statistics at University of New Mexico and an adjunct scientist at Lovelace Respiratory Research Institute.

Rex Bernardo

Rex Bernardo is a professor and endowed chair in corn breeding and genetics in the Department of Agronomy and Plant Genetics, University of Minnesota. He obtained a B.S. degree in agriculture at the Visayas State College of Agriculture in the Philippines in 1984, and a Ph.D. degree plant breeding and genetics at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1988. Dr. Bernardo's research focuses on the use of quantitative genetics theory and molecular markers to improve the efficiency of plant breeding methods, particularly for corn. Dr. Bernardo teaches a graduate course on the application of quantitative genetics to plant breeding and a graduate course on publishing in plant science journals. He is currently director of the Applied Plant Sciences graduate program at the University of Minnesota. Dr. Bernardo has served on the editorial boards of Crop Science and Theoretical and Applied Genetics. He received the Crop Science Society of America (CSSA) Young Crop Scientist Award in 1999, is a Fellow of CSSA and the American Society of Agronomy, and is currently chair of the Crop Breeding and Genetics division of CSSA.

Fred Bliss

Fred Bliss is Senior Director of R&D Special Projects/NAFTA Commercial Research Coordinator at Seminis Vegetable Seeds; and Professor Emeritus at the University of California, Davis. Dr. Bliss received the B.S. Degree in Agronomy from the University of Nebraska and the Ph.D. Degree in Horticulture-Genetics from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Prior to joining Seminis in 1998, where he has served in varied capacities including Director of World-wide Breeding and of Support Science and Technology, he was a member of the Department of Horticulture at U.W.-Madison (1966 -1988), and the Department of Pomology (Lester Endowed Chair) at UC Davis (1988-1998). Fred has taught courses on The Principles of Plant Breeding, Advanced Line Breeding, and Vegetable Crops Production and served as Major Professor for some 30 Ph.D. and M.S. students from around the world. He has managed research projects in Africa and Latin America as well as the U.S. where emphasis has been on breeding and genetic improvement of self-pollinated agronomic crops (dry beans and cowpeas), horticultural crops (table beets, garden beans and tomatoes), vine fruits (kiwifruit) and tree fruits (peaches, apricots and rootstocks). He has served as president of the American Society for Horticultural Science and is a Fellow of the ASHS, CSSA, and AAAS.

Alain Charcosset

Dr. Alain Charcosset is a senior scientist in the Plant Genetics and Breeding department at the Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique (INRA) in Gif-sur-Yvette, France. He studied Agronomy and Plant Breeding at the Institut National Agronomique Paris-Grignon, where he received his Ph.D. degree in 1990. His research focuses on the characterization of genetic diversity and its utilization for quantitative trait improvement, based on genomics information and the use of marker-assisted selection. This research involves theoretical contributions and application to early maize and its adaptation to northern Europe environmental conditions. After having coordinated its maize program since 1993, he is presently vice-head of the Plant Genetics and Breeding department of INRA.

Sam Eathington

Sam Eathington was raised on a grain and livestock farm in west-central Illinois. He received his B.S. (’90), M.S. (’93), and Ph.D. (’95) from the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana. Sam’s graduate education focused on genetics, plant breeding (soybeans and corn) and application of molecular markers to plant breeding. Sam spent one year as the Quantitative Traits Project Leader for ICI/Garst Seed Company, where he worked to integrate molecular markers into traditional corn breeding programs. In September of 1996, Sam joined Monsanto as part of Asgrow Seed Company’s New Concept corn program. This program focused on trait integration and application of molecular markers. In 1998, Sam accepted the ROW Trait Integration position for Monsanto Global Seed Company. In this role, Sam worked to integrate and develop the trait integration programs for Monsanto’s International corn breeding programs. In April of 1999, Sam became the Team Leader for the Molecular Breeding Informatics and Quantitative Applications Team. This team was responsible for development and implementation of informatic tools that support the analysis of molecular marker information. In January of 2001, Sam also assumed leadership of the Molecular Breeding Project Coordination program, which is responsible for implementing molecular breeding project plans in cooperation with the breeding programs. In September of 2005, Sam became the North America Corn Line Development Director.

Gebisa Ejeta

Gebisa Ejeta is a professor of plant breeding and genetics in the Department of Agronomy at Purdue University. His research focuses on the improvement of the sorghum crop for resistance to biotic and abiotic stresses as well as for value-added, nutritional quality and end product development. He has full responsibility for teaching the first graduate level course in plant breeding and assists in teaching of a number of other courses at Purdue University. Dr. Ejeta is involved in a variety of programs in international agriculture through Purdue University, international research centers, foundations, and other agencies. He has contributed to agriculture in developing countries through sorghum cultivars and hybrids that he developed, programs that he initiated, and graduates students he has trained. Dr. Ejeta is a member and fellow of the Crop Science Society of America, the American Society of Agronomy, and the American Association for the Advancement of Sciences.

Walter Fehr

Walter Fehr is a Charles R. Curtiss Distinguished Professor in Agriculture and director of the Office of Biotechnology at Iowa State University. He is a soybean breeder in the Department of Agronomy and teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in plant breeding. He obtained his B.S. and M.S degrees at the University of Minnesota and his Ph. D. in plant breeding and cytogenetics at Iowa State University. His research has emphasized evaluation of breeding methodologies, development of novel traits, genetic and agronomic analysis of novel traits, and cultivar development.

André Gallais

André Gallais is Professor Emeritus of the “Institut National Agronomique Paris-Grignon” (INAPG, Paris, France) where he was Professor Genetics and Plant Breeding from 1982 to 2005 in charge of a graduate course. He was the head of the research Station of Genetics and Plant Breeding of Le Moulon (Gif/Yvette, France) from 1982 to 1999. Dr Gallais first developed theoretical research on quantitative genetics and the breeding of autopolyploid species, with application to the breeding of two autotetraploids species cocksfoot and alfalfa. Simultaneously he developed theoretical work on the best combination of recurrent selection and variety development. Since 1982 he has been working mainly on corn, where he has developed studies on genetic resources, recurrent selection, marker-assisted selection and more recently on the genetics and breeding of nitrogen use efficiency. His main interest is the use of quantitative genetics theory and molecular markers to increase the efficiency of breeding methods.

Christiane Gebhardt

Dr. PD Christiane Gebhardt is a senior scientist and research group leader at the Max-Planck Institute for Plant Breeding Research. In 1978, she obtained a diploma degree in biochemistry from the University of Tübingen, Germany. She did her PhD work at the Friedrich-Miescher Institute in Basel and graduated 1982 from the University of Basel (Switzerland). After postdoctoral positions at CSIRO in Canberra, Australia, and Rothamsted Experimental Station (Harpenden, UK) she took up her current position at the MPI for Plant Breeding Research in 1985. In 1995, she habilitated at the University of Cologne. Her group’s research focuses on genome analysis (DNA-based markers, molecular maps, QTL analysis, population genetics) of potato (Solanum tuberosum), the world’s forth most important crop. Dr. Gebhardt served six years on the Board of Trustees of CIAT and is associated editor of Theoretical and Applied Genetics.

Elcio Perpetuo Guimaraes

Elcio Perpetuo Guimaraes received his BSc degree in Agronomy from the “Escola Superior de Agricultura Luiz de Queiroz” in Brazil. His MSc is on Genetics and Plant Breeding from the same University in Brazil. In 1976 he began working as a rice breeder at EMBRAPA. He obtained a PhD degree in 1985 from University of Iowa in USA, also on Genetics and Plant Breeding. From 1989 to 1996 he worked as rice breeder at the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT), in Cali, Colombia. In 1996 he returned to EMBRAPA where he remained until the end of 2001 when he became a senior officer at FAO. In his career he has been responsible for releasing several rice varieties in Latin America and has published and edited several books and technical articles.

Arnel R. Hallauer

Dr. Arnel R. Hallauer is a retired C. F. Curtiss Distinguished Professor of Iowa State University, a member of the National Academy of Science, and a member of the US Department of Agriculture Agricultural Research Service's Science Hall of Fame. Hallauer has influenced plant breeders around the world through his teachings, publications, and breeding accomplishments. His book, Quantitative Genetics in Maize Breeding, is considered a standard textbook for corn breeders. He conducted and established full-sib reciprocal recurrent selection as an effective breeding method for maize.

Hallauer graduated with a BS degree in 1954 with a major in plant science at Kansas State University. After military service, he entered Iowa State University where he got his MSc in 1958 and his PhD in 1960.

Hallauer started his professional career in 1958 with the USDA/ARS. After having completed over 30 years of federal service, Hallauer retired from USDA and accepted a full-time faculty position at Iowa State. He was named a Charles F. Curtiss Distinguished Professor in Agriculture in 1991. He retired in 2003.

Steven J. Knapp

Steven J. Knapp is professor and Georgia Research Alliance Eminent Scholar in Plant Breeding and Genomics in the Center for Applied Genetic Technologies at the University of Georgia. He received B.S. and M.S. degrees from the University of Nevada in 1978 and 1980 and a Ph.D. from the University of Nebraska in 1983. He was a faculty member in the Department of Crop and Soil Science at Oregon State University from 1985 to 2004 where he held the Paul C. Berger Endowed Chair and taught Advanced Plant Breeding and Quantitative Genetics, Genetic Mapping, and Quantitative Trait Locus Mapping. His research has focused on the domestication and breeding of industrial oilseeds and molecular breeding and comparative and translational genomics in sunflower. Since moving to UGA, he has initiated molecular breeding and genomics research programs in peanut and watermelon. He has mentored 28 graduate students and 14 postdoctoral scholars and served on the editorial boards of Crop Science, Theoretical and Applied Genetics, and Molecular Breeding. He is a Fellow of the Crop Science Society of America and American Society of Agronomy and was awarded an Alexander Von Humbolt Fellowship in 1992.

Elizabeth Lee

Elizabeth Lee is an associate professor in the Department of Plant Agriculture, University of Guelph. She has a B.Sc. in Agronomy from the University of Minnesota, a M.Sc. in Plant Breeding and Cytogenetics from Iowa State University, and a Ph.D. in Genetics from the University of Missouri-Columbia. In addition to running an active maize inbred line development and germplasm enhancement program at the University of Guelph, Dr. Lee's research focus is on understanding the mechanisms underlying quantitative traits. Dr. Lee is currently serving as an associate editor for Crop Science, a NSERC GSC03 committee member, and is a member of the Dept. of Plant Agricultural executive and graduate studies committees. Dr. Lee is primarily involved in graduate student teaching, teaching classes in plant genetics, plant breeding, and quantitative genetics.

Carlos M. Löffler

Carlos M. Löffler is a senior scientist within the Maize Product Development department of Pioneer Hi-Bred Int'l. Born and raised in the Argentine Pampas region, Dr. Löffler obtained his Ingeniero Agrónomo degree at the University of La Plata, Argentina, and his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Plant Breeding at the University of Minnesota. After a four-year professorship at the University of Mar del Plata/INTA, Balcarce, Argentina, he joined Pioneer in 1986 to manage the company’s Argentine corn breeding program. Dr. Löffler developed corn germplasm adapted to the Argentine Pampas, including the first successful commercial single-cross product in the Argentine market. He moved to Pioneer’s headquarters in Johnston, Iowa, in 1991 to conduct various research projects, including investigations of the causes of genotype by environment interactions in corn. Dr. Löffler currently leads the development of environmental classification systems for crop breeding.

Sandra Milach

Sandra Milach is a Senior Scientist with Pioneer Hi-Bred Int'l, at its Passo Fundo research center in Brazil. She is currently engaged in breeding corn for southern Brazil market and leads the application of molecular breeding and marker assisted selection technologies for Pioneer in Brazil. Prior to joining Pioneer, she was a Professor at Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul since 1991 where she taught and conducted research on oat breeding, quantitative genetics and molecular breeding applied to cereal crops. She worked for EMBRAPA from 2001 to 2003 where she conducted research on the genetics of aluminum tolerance and resistance to leaf rust in wheat. Dr. Milach received a BS in Agronomy from Pelotas Federal University, a M.S. degree in Plant Breeding from Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul in Brazil, and a Ph.D. in Plant Breeding and Genetics from University of Minnesota.

John Miles

John Miles has been a forage breeder at the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) in Cali, Colombia since 1979. He obtained his B.S. in Plant Science from the University of California at Davis in 1968 and his M.S. in Plant Breeding at Cornell University in 1971. After serving in the U.S. Peace Corps in Colombia, he obtained his Ph.D., under the supervision of John Dudley, at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1979. Dr. Miles conducts an applied plant breeding program aimed at developing superior apomictic tropical forage grass cultivars. His major research interest is in developing practical breeding schemes to exploit heterosis in asexually propagated crops. He is currently serving as associate editor of Crop Science.

Rita Mumm

Rita Mumm is a consultant and principal for the firm, GeneMax Services, in Chapel Hill, NC, specializing in applications of biotechnology to crop improvement. She earned an A.S. degree with an emphasis in Agriculture at Joliet Junior College in Joliet, IL in 1987, a B.S. degree in Agricultural Science at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1989, and a Ph.D. in Genetics and Plant Breeding at UIUC, under the supervision of Professor John Dudley, in 1993. Entering the seed industry as transgenic product development was in its infancy, she managed the value-added product development program for DEKALB Genetics Corp., facilitating commercial launch of four value-added traits, one each year from 1995 through 1998. She went on to lead a team in establishing a high-throughput molecular marker system for DEKALB, aimed at providing this technology as a powerful tool for the breeder in the development of corn hybrids with key performance characteristics and positioning DEKALB as an industry leader in implementing genomic information in seed product development. She led efforts to establish transgenic product development programs for Syngenta in cotton, wheat, barley, rice, and plant-made pharmaceuticals in safflower. She has extensive experience in developing Quality Systems to safeguard transgenic event identity and purity through Research, Development, and Commercialization phases of seed product development. She is a named inventor on three U.S. patents, one of which includes the GA21 source of glyphosate tolerance in corn.

Tom Osborn

Tom Osborn is Director of Genetic Resources Development at Seminis Vegetable Seeds in Woodland, CA since 2004. Prior to joining Seminis, he was Bascom Professor of Agronomy at the University of Wisconsin, where he taught and conducted research on molecular breeding and genetics of crop plants. He received a B.S. in Horticulture and a Ph.D. in Plant Breeding and Plant Genetics from the University of Wisconsin.

Wolfgang H. Pfeiffer

Wolfgang H. Pfeiffer is the Plant Breeding Coordinator for HarvestPlus; based at CIAT, Colombia. He obtained his Ph.D. and M.Sc. degrees in Agricultural Sciences from Stuttgart – Hohenheim University in Germany. Before joining HarvestPlus, Wolf was Head Plant Breeder/project manager (small grains), Intensive Agro-ecosystems Program, at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) in Mexico and responsible for applied and strategic bread wheat, durum wheat and triticale improvement under CIMMYT’s global germplasm development mandate. Wolf has over 20 years’ experience in International Agriculture in crop improvement, the development and implementation of research strategies and methods, human resource development, and the coordination of global and regional networks and projects. His expertise is in Crop Improvement and International Agriculture.

Wayne Powell

Wayne Powell is Director and Chief Executive Officer of the National Institute Agricultural Botany (NIAB), Cambridge UK. Previous appointments include Head of the School of Agriculture and Wine, University Adelaide, Australia; Deputy Director of the SCRI, Dundee, UK; he also worked at the DuPont Company in Wilmington, Delaware, USA.

He has reviewed crop science research sponsored by CGIAR in Latin America, Africa and the Near East and has been a member of the external review teams for VIB (Belgium), Rothamsted (UK) and INRA (France). He is Chairman of the Program Advisory Committee for the Generation Challenge Program and Honorary Research Fellow at CIMMYT, Mexico; Member of the JIC Governing Council, Norwich and is an Honorary Professor at Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh, UK.

Personal research interests are at the interface of plant genetics, genome science, plant breeding and conservation of genetic resources with a strong emphasis on the delivery of ‘public good’ outcomes. He has published over 225-refereed scientific papers, presented numerous invited papers at international meetings and successfully supervised 20 PhD students and numerous visiting workers. He maintains an active research group, continues to write grants to support his research from a diverse range of funding sources and has an extensive international network of collaborators and contacts.

Matthew Reynolds

Matthew Reynolds is Head of Wheat Physiology at The International Maize and Wheat Improvement Centre (CIMMYT). He obtained his bachelors degree in Botany at Oxford University in 1984 and Ph.D. in Horticulture at Cornell University in 1989. He also is Special Professor at Nottingham University and serves on the editorial board of Journal of Agricultural Science. His main professional activity is to develop and transfer wheat breeding technologies to increase productivity in developing countries with a special focus on marginal environments. As Head of the Global Wheat Physiology Program, a principal role is to develop partnerships with investigators worldwide that enable appropriate technologies to be applied to the problems facing resource poor farmers. His work has contributed to the understanding of the fundamental limitations to wheat yield potential in irrigated environments as well as identifying rapid and efficient early generation selection tools such as canopy temper! ature which have been adopted in major wheat breeding programs. His work on developing conceptual models of wheat to highlight its genetic limitations under stress are used as decision support tools in strategic breeding, exploration of genetic resources, and QTL mapping of stress adaptive traits. He has also been involved in developing agronomic recommendations for wheat in marginal environments, supervises young scientists in the area of application of crop physiology to breeding, and has organized a number of international workshops addressing strategies to increase wheat production.

Roberto Tuberosa

Roberto Tuberosa is a professor in Biotechnology Applied to Plant Breeding in the Department of Agroenvironmental Sciences and Technology, University of Bologna, Italy. He obtained a B.S. degree in Botany at the University of Bologna and a M.S. and Ph.D. in Plant Breeding and Genetics at the University of Minnesota. The research of Dr. Tuberosa focuses on the use of genomics approaches to unravel the genetic basis of the response to drought and to improve the sustainability of cereal production, particularly corn and durum wheat. Dr. Tuberosa teaches a number of courses related to the application of biotechnology to plant breeding and is a member of the Editorial Board of Maydica, Molecular Breeding, Plant Biotechnolgy Journal, and Plant Genetic Resources. Dr. Tuberosa is also a member of the Board of Plant Genomics European Meetings and of the EUCARPIA Maize and Sorghum section.

Wilfred Vermerris

Wilfred Vermerris recently joined the University of Florida Genetics Institute as Associate Professor of Agronomy. He has a Master's degree in Bio-molecular Engineering from Wageningen University in the Netherlands and a Ph.D. in Genetics from North Carolina State University. He was on the faculty at Purdue University from 2001-2006. His research focuses on cell wall biosynthesis in grasses, with an emphasis on maize and sorghum. He is an expert on the brown midrib mutants in these two species. Research on these mutants has been the basis for the development of maize and sorghum lines with improved biomass conversion properties that can be used for the production of fuels and green chemical feedstocks. He has taught Plant Genetics, Physiology and Biochemistry of Crop Improvement, and a lab course on PCR.