Who are we?

President

Petr Smýkal

AGRITEC Plant Research Ltd.
Department of Biotechnology
Zemědělská 2520/16, 787 01 Sumperk
Czech Republic

email: p.smykal(at)gl-ttp.com
web site: www.agritec.cz

Petr Smykal has gained MSc. Degree in Plant Biotechnology and PhD. in Plant Molecular Biology at Charles University in Prague, with work on androgenesis and related stress biology namely heat-shock proteins. Post-doc at ETH Zurich bring him more into genetics with study of photoperiodism, followed by argonaute genes and miRNAs at Freiburg, Germany.
In Agritec Plant Research Ltd. Šumperk, his focus deals with molecular studies of pea and flax genetic resources using retrotransposons and microsatellites. These tools are also being developed for variety registration and protection purposes. Beside such applications he is interested in genome evolution, particularly of repetitive sequences. Another research deals with genetic modification of pea for virus and pest resistence and as tool for production of biopharmaceuticals, development of molecular markers for breeders linked to disease resistances, as well as tissue culture such as somatic embryogenesis of various legumes. Owing to such broad portfolio Agritec does have extensive collaboration with various national and international institutions both on academic and breeding activities.
Agritec Plant Research Ltd has become a member of GL-TTP since very begining and Petr Smykal commits himself on its further development.


Treasurer

Anne-Marie Bochard

LIMAGRAIN VERNEUIL HOLDING
ZAC Les Portes de Riom, BP 173
63204 Riom Cedex
France

email : anne-marie.bochard(at)limagrain.com

AM Bochard obtained her Master of Biochemical Engineering from Clermont-Ferrand University in 1996. She then spent 6 months in Australia to work on Transposon tagging in A. thaliana.
After 1 year as a Biochemistry teacher, she joined the Limagrain Group to work on seed quality control. In 2000, she moved to the head of the technology & markers development team of the molecular marker laboratory for field crops. The aim of this lab is to develop molecular marker use in breeding programmes. Her team has been involved in the automation of the lab and the setting up of molecular markers for field crops species.
In 2007, she became in charge of use of molecular markers in various autogamous crops, including peas.


Vice-President

Tom Warkentin

University of Saskatchewan
Crop Development Centre, 51 Campus Drive
S7N 5A8 Saskatoon Saskatchewan
Canada

e-mail: tom.warkentin(at)usask.ca
website: www.pulse.usask.ca

Tom Warkentin is a professor and pulse crop breeder at the Crop Development Centre (CDC), University of Saskatchewan in Saskatoon (Canada). His primary breeding activities are on field pea with the goal of developing early maturing, high yielding cultivars with resistance to powdery mildew and improved resistance to mycosphaerella blight and lodging, and with acceptable quality for export and domestic food and feed markets. Tom is a member of the pulse crop breeding group at the CDC which includes programmes on lentil, chickpea, dry bean and fababean. In addition to pulse crop breeding the group is involved in related research in genetics, genomics, pathology, physiology, agronomy, and end-use quality.


Vice-President

Aleksandar Mikić

Institute of Field and Vegetable Crops (IFVCNS)
Maksima Gorkog 30
21000 Novi Sad
Serbia

email: mikic(at)ifvcns.ns.ac.yu
web site: www.ifvcns.ac.yu

Aleksandar Mikić got his BSc degree in agronomy of field and vegetable crops in 1998 and his MSc degree in genetics and plant breeding in 2008, both at the Faculty of Agriculture of the University of Novi Sad. Since 2000, he has been working in the Institute of Field and Vegetable Crops as breeder of diverse annual legumes, such as field pea, common and other vetches, faba bean, grass pea and other vetchlings, lentil, white lupin, chickpea, cowpea and pigeon pea. Aleksandar is involved in breeding programmes of these species for forage, grain, biomass and green manure yield and quality and tolerance to abiotic and biotic stress, with emphasis to low temperatures, drought and pea weevil. He coauthored a certain number of field pea, common vetch, Hungarian vetch, hairy vetch and faba bean cultivars registered in Serbia and abroad. Aleksandar also deals with annual legumes genetic resources and is one of the curators of the Annual Forage Legumes Collection (AFLCNS) in Novi Sad. His other fields of interest include agroecology, agronomy, intercropping and utilisation in animal feeding of annual legumes. Aleksandar is one of the members of the current AEP Scientific Committee, section Genetics.


Past President

Noel Ellis

John Innes Centre
Crop Genetics Department
NR4 7UH Norwich,
United Kingdom

e-mail: noel.ellis(at)bbsrc.ac.uk
website: Noel Ellis's lab web page

Noel Ellis is a pea geneticist working at the John Innes Centre in Norwich (UK) where he is the Associate Head of the Department of Crop Genetics. His research interests are in the genetics and genomics of pea with three main components: (i) genetic and genomic diversity in Pisum (ii) genetic and comparative linkage mapping (iii) the genetics of plant architecture, especially the genetics of pea leaf development.
Noel is the Coordinator of the Grain Legumes Integrated Project and envisaged GL-TTP as a mechanism for the transfer of knowledge from this large, publicly funded, research project to a wide community of interest.


Past Scientific Manager

Catherine Golstein

(Previously in GL-TTP office)
INRA,
Foresight Unit
147 rue de l'Université
75007 Paris
France

e-mail: catherine.golstein(at)paris.inra.fr

During her doctoral and post-doctoral work (John Innes Centre, Norwich, UK, 1997-2001; Indiana University, Bloomington, USA, 2001-2005), Catherine Golstein contributed to the development of a new paradigm for plant disease resistance. Her work on the molecular complexity underlying the indirect activation of plant defenses by pathogen effectors is published in Science Magazine.
In 2005-2007, Catherine embraced the career of Scientific Manager of GL-TTP, taking a broader responsibility in the advancement and application of science. Her double formation as research scientist and agricultural engineer (ENSAR, Rennes, France, 1996) allowed her to match the cutting edge of plant science and biotechnologies with the real needs and constraints of plant breeders and end-users.


Executive Secretary

Anne Schneider







email: schneider.av(at)gmail.com

Anne Schneider is one of the GL-TTP Founding Members and she sees GL-TTP as a non-exclusive collaborative platform which is a unique tool for durable and sustainable partnerships for carrying out scientific survey and making value of technology watch for the purposes of applied legume crop breeding as a first priority. She is convinced that the GL-TTP will build added value upon the groundwork, relationships and experience from AEP and associated legume network.
Up to 30 June 2008, Anne Schneider has been the Executive Manager of AEP, the European Association for Grain Legumes Research, which is an associative Europe-based but international-active network which facilitates multidisciplinary scientific approach and interface with producers, breeders and industry (http://www.grainlegumes.com/aep_network)
She was partner in different EU projects and especially leader of the Work Package ‘Dissemination of knowledge’ in the Grain Legumes Integrated Project (GLIP, 2004-2008) and plays the in-between role for legume community and decision makers. She is also the Managing Editor of the quarterly Grain Legumes Magazine and of the web site www.grainlegumes.com.
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