WHEN KIRBY NILSEN was working on his undergraduate degree at the University of Saskatchewan, he says he was unsure of what he wanted to pursue as a lifelong career. That is, until he came across the field of plant breeding. “Having worked in plant breeding programs prior to and during my under- grad, I certainly recognized that as a potential area to pursue employment. It wasn't until after taking fourth-year plant breeding and genetics courses that I knew for sure that I wanted to be a plant breeder,” he says. Nilsen, 31, is a PhD student working in Curtis Pozniak’s wheat breeding program at the Crop Development Centre in Saskatoon. He’s excited to be part of a field of study he says is making huge strides the world over, as a new generation of plant breeders uses new tools to unlock nature’s secrets and improve plants to be more nutritious, more resistant to disease and envi- ronmental stresses, and to yield better for farmers. Nilsen’s story of falling in love with plant breeding is a story that, fortu- nately, is becoming more common in the industry, and it’s music to the ears of Rale Gjuric, founder of the Manitoba-based Haplotech and director of the University of California — Davis Plant Breeding Academy (PBA) program. The PBA is a professional development program designed by the UC Davis Seed Biotechnology Center to increase the supply of professional plant breeders. Nilsen represents a new generation of breeders who are using the latest technological tools to do a job that, despite being as old as agriculture itself, is more important than ever. “In principle, things are changing technologically, but the role of the breeder doesn’t change at all,” Gjuric says. According to Gjuric, it wasn’t long ago that it looked as if plant breeding was in danger as a profession. The rise of genetic technologies fuelled a belief that plant breeding would become obsolete, he says. “There was an attitude prevalent in the 1990s that traditional plant breed- ing was on its way out, that we wouldn’t need it anymore because we’d have New technologies are proving to be an asset to up-and-coming plant breeders, ensuring a healthy supply of them for the seed industry. Marc Zienkiewicz Powerful Tools, MAJOR POSSIBILITIES 24 GERMINATION.CA SEPTEMBER 2017