Scientists at Plant & Food Research have been awarded at the Science New Zealand 2020 National Awards, held at Parliament in Wellington last night.
A Team Award was presented to the kiwifruit genome sequencing team for their work in manually annotating the kiwifruit genome. The genome has set the “gold standard” for ongoing genomics and gene identification research – work which will greatly benefit future breeding efforts.
Plant & Food Research’s Honorary Fellow in New Cultivar Kiwifruit Breeding Dr Russel Lowe was recognised with a Lifetime Achievement Award for his breeding and selection of new kiwifruit cultivars.
Dr Lisa Evans was also recognised for her research that provides insights into how the movement patterns and cognitive ability of honey bees, bumble bees and other insects affect their efficacy as crop pollinators. Awarded the Plant & Food Research Early Career Research Award, Dr Evan’s work is providing new pollination management approaches for New Zealand cropping industries, leading to more sustainable and efficient production of pollination dependent crops.
