The second day of the 2020 National Association of Plant Breeders virtual meeting kicks off shortly. We sit down with this year’s award winners to talk about their breeding accomplishments and what drives them to success in their industry.
Winning this year’s Lifetime Achievement Award is Wayne Hanna of the University of Georgia, an internationally recognized plant breeder of grasses and grain crops, particularly turf grass and pearl millet.
Winning the Early Career Scientist Award is Emily Ziemke, North American corn technology lead for Corteva Agriscience in Mankato, MN. Ziemke and her team evaluate, deploy and optimize technologies such as genetic prediction in Corteva North America corn breeding programs. She also happens to be Seed World’s Future Giant of the Seed Industry for 2019.
Being honoured with this year’s Plant Breeding Impact Award is Corteva Agriscience’s Luis Verde, maize product development director for Latin America and global sorghum lead for Corteva Agriscience, where he focuses on breeding technologies and methods to accelerate genetic gain and continue delivering the best products to the market.
