The WBA is excited to announce the following Invited Speakers will be a part of the 2022 program
Dr Alison Bentley
Director, CIMMYT Global Wheat Program
Alison Bentley is the Director of CIMMYT’s Global Wheat Program, based in Mexico. Her research combines genetics and genomics to develop and deliver new tools and technology to improve plant breeding, crop production and adaptation to climate change. At CIMMYT, Alison leads a team of scientists using scientific approaches to develop improved wheat germplasm. This germplasm captures packages of traits providing productivity, resilience, and broad adaptation, supporting global wheat improvement and smallholder livelihoods. Prior to joining CIMMYT in November 2020, Alison worked in the UK focused on translation of fundamental scientific breakthroughs into tangible impacts for the agri-food sector. She has a doctorate in agricultural science and PhD in agriculture from The University of Sydney, Australia.
Dr Adam Norman
Wheat Breeder , Australian Grain Technologies
Adam Norman is a Wheat Breeder with Australian Grain Technologies (AGT), currently based in Roseworthy South Australia. Adam completed a PhD at the University of Adelaide in conjunction with AGT on the topic of optimising genomic prediction accuracy, and how to best implement it in a breeding programme. In 2016 he accepted a role with AGT in the Roseworthy wheat breeding programme, and also took on roles around establishing and implementing genomic selection within the various AGT breeding programmes. He is passionate about logical decision making and improving the plant breeding process, and enjoys helping Australian farmers and rural communities through the provision of improved varieties.
Nigel Hart
Managing Director, Grains Research and Development Corporation
Nigel grew up in southern New South Wales and has spent more than 25 years working in executive and leadership positions in large scale infrastructure, port, warehousing and supply chains operations for the grains sector, both within Australian and internationally.
Nigel has worked as an expert consultant on a range of projects in the grain supply chain from international benchmarking of bulk and container supply chains, plant protein manufacturing, hybrid wheat commercialisation, digital strategies for supply chain optimisation and the design and development of a 1.3mmt grain export terminal.
He was previously Global Director (Ports) at Archer Daniels Midland where he led the development of a global port’s growth and productivity strategy across Asia, Europe, South America and the USA.
Prior to this he spent 15 years at GrainCorp culminating in his position as Group General Manager – Storage and Logistics where he led the storage and logistics operations, grain accumulation and domestic customer management teams across the east coast of Australia.
Nigel has a bachelor’s degree in Agriculture from Western Sydney University, is a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Company Directors and successfully completed the Advanced Management Program at Harvard Business School in 2013.
Dr Grant Hollaway
Senior Plant Pathologist, Agriculture Victoria
Dr Grant Hollaway is a Senior Plant Pathologist with Agriculture Victoria at Horsham. For the last 30 years he has conducted research and extension into the epidemiology and control of diseases caused by bacteria, nematodes and fungi. During 2003, Grant undertook a sabbatical at CIMMYT with Dr Ravi Sing. He played a pivotal role in the development of what is now the national independent disease rating system that is delivered as part of the GRDC’s NVT project. Grant’s team are leading providers in the delivery of field based phenotyping services to plant breeders with more than 100,000 rows planted annually across 17 different diseases in 6 different field crops. Grant has published more than 40 scientific papers and was this year’s winner of the GRDC’s Recognising and Rewarding Excellence Award.
Dr Felicity Harris
Senior Lecturer, Charles Sturt University
Felicity was previously a Research Scientist at NSW Department of Primary Industries at the Wagga Wagga Agricultural Institute and has recently started a new role as Senior Lecturer in Crop Science at Charles Sturt University, Wagga Wagga. Her research focuses on understanding the drivers of phenology in wheat and barley and using management to adjust timing of crop development to optimise yield and adaptation across variable environments. Felicity is a partner in her family farm at Junee in southern NSW and is passionate about research engagement with grain growers. She was awarded the Australian Society of Agronomy Young Agronomist of the Year in 2017 and GRDC Emerging Leader award in 2019.
Dr Josquin Tibbits
Research Leader - Plant Functional Genomics, Agriculture Victoria
Josquin gained his PhD from The University of Melbourne in 2006 working on the genetic dissection of complex traits in forest tree species. In 2009 he joined Agriculture Victoria Molecular Genetics team where he worked on wheat genetics and genomics working in a team utilising next generation sequencing technologies. This opened the door to participation in the international efforts to assemble the wheat and other crop genomes. Josquin is currently the Research Leader for the Plant Functional Genomics group based at Bundoora and is working to accelerate adoption of genomics technologies into plant breeding systems for the benefit of Australian farmers.
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