Print This Page2009 Awardees
2009 Winners
at a Glance
- The 12 fellowship recipients represent 10 different countries.
- Five winners are pursuing a Ph.D. at U.S. universities, 2 in Australia, and 1 each in Argentina, Canada, China, Colombia and Italy.
- Nine of the winning projects are in wheat research.
- Three of the winning projects are in rice research.
Monsanto salutes the twelve students who were awarded Monsanto Beachell-Borlaug International Scholars Program fellowships in 2009. An internationally recognized panel of judges reviewed all proposals and selected the candidates below as the 2009 award recipients.
Bhoja Basnet – “Molecular Characterization of Durable Resistance to Stripe and Leaf Rusts in Two Wheat Populations”
Basnet attends Texas A&M University as a PhD candidate in wheat breeding. Through this program, he will continue research on his dissertation. He received an MS in plant science with a specialization in plant breeding from South Dakota State University and is a citizen of Nepal. His mentoring professor is Dr. Amir Ibrahim of Texas A&M University.
Maribel Cruz – “Cold Tolerance in Rice: Validation of Methodologies for Phenotypic Selection, Characterization of the CIAT-FLAR Germplasm and Introgression of this Trait”
Cruz will pursue a PhD at the National University of Colombia and will collaborate with the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) and the University of Arkansas. She received an MS in biology from the National University of Colombia. Her mentoring professor is Dr. Carlos Munoz-Perea of the National University of Colombia.
Abdulsalam Dakouri – “Wheat Improvement through Genetic Analysis of Leaf Rust Resistance Gene Lr34”
Dakouri will pursue a PhD at the University of Manitoba and collaborate with researchers at the International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA) in Syria. He received an MS in plant genetics and crop improvement from the University of East Anglia (UK) and is a citizen of Syria. His mentoring professor is Dr. Sylvie Cloutier of the University of Manitoba.
Tesfaye Letta Dugo – “Mapping Novel Sources of Resistance to Stem Rust in Durum Wheat”
Dugo will pursue a PhD at the University of Bologna (Italy) and will collaborate with the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) in Mexico and Debre Zeit Agricultural Research Centre (DZARC) in Ethiopia. He received an MS in plant breeding from Alemaya University (Ethiopia) and is a citizen of Ethiopia. His mentoring professor is Dr. Roberto Tuberso of the University of Bologna.
Bhanu Kalia – “Methodology for Efficient Mapping of Alien Introgression for Adult Plant Resistance to Leaf Rust and Other Agronomic Traits in Wheat Aegilops Tauschii Hybrids”
Kalia will pursue a PhD at Kansas Sate University and collaborate with CIMMYT on her work. She received an MS in genetics from Punjab Agricultural University and is citizen of India. Her mentoring professor is Dr. Bikram Gill of Kansas State University.
Tadelle Kumssa – “Developing Elite Wheat Lines with Stem Rust Resistance through Marker-Assisted Selection, Phenotyping, and Gene Pyramiding”
Kumssa will pursue a PhD at the University of Nebraska and collaborate with the International Winter Wheat Improvement Program in Ankara, Turkey. Kumssa received an MS in plant sciences from Wageningen University and is a citizen of Ethiopia. His mentoring professor is Dr. P. Stephen Baenziger of the University of Nebraska.
Godwin Macharia – “Molecular Diversity, Linkage Disequilibrium, and Genetic Mapping in the East African Bread Wheat (Triticum aestivum) Genepool”
Macharia will pursue a PhD at the University of Minnesota and collaborate with CIMMYT. He received an MS in plant breeding from Egerton University (Kenya) and is a citizen of Kenya. His mentoring professor is Dr. James Anderson of the University of Minnesota.
Laura Moreno – “Making Gains inside the Grain: Development of Bio-Fortified Rice Varieties to Combat Iron Deficiency in Latin America”
Moreno will pursue a PhD at the University of Melbourne and will collaborate with CIAT. She received an MS in biological science with a minor in plant genetics and molecular biology from the University of Los Andes and is a citizen of Colombia. Her mentoring professor is Dr. Alexander Johnson of the University of Melbourne.
Suzuky Pinto-Gonzalez – “Harnessing Genetic Variation for Improved Assimilation: Respiration Balance in Wheat”
Pinto-Gonzalez will pursue a PhD from the University of Adelaide and collaborate with CIMMYT on this project. She received an MS in natural resources with an emphasis in wheat physiology from the Technological Institute of Sonora and is a citizen of Mexico. Her mentoring professor is Dr. Peter Landgridge of the University of Adelaide – Waite.
Ali Soltani – “Analysis of Nuclear-Mitochondrial Communication Defects: A Critical Step to Increase Wheat Productivity”
Soltani will pursue a PhD at North Dakota State University and collaborate with ICARDA. He received an MS in agricultural biotechnology from the University of Tehran and is a citizen of Iran. His mentoring professor is Dr. Shahryar Kianian of North Dakota State University.
Ignacio Terrile – “Physiological and Genetic Bases of Spike Fertility Index in Wheat (Triticum aestivum L.)”
Terrile will pursue a PhD at the University of Buenos Aires (Argentina) and will collaborate with the Leibniz Institute of Plant Genetics and Crop Plant Research (IPD) in Germany. He received an MS in plant genetics with an emphasis in wheat breeding and is a citizen of Argentina. His mentoring professor is Dr. Fernanda Gonzalez of the University of Buenos Aires.
Fan Zhang – “Identifying QTLs/Genes for Drought and Cold Tolerances in Rice and Developing Drought- and Cold-Tolerant Japonica Rice for Northeast China”
Zhang will pursue a PhD at the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences and will collaborate with the University of Georgia. He received an MS in crop science from Shenyang Agricultural University and is a citizen of China. His mentoring professors are Dr. Zhikang Li of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Science and Dr. Andrew Paterson of the University of Georgia.
