Monday, April 4, 2016

BMGF program officer joins Young Researchers' Lunch



LOS BAÑOS, Philippines—The Young Researchers' Lunch in March hosted Dr. Gary Atlin, senior program officer and crop productivity lead within the Agricultural Research and Development team at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF).

Dr. Atlin (center in photo) is involved with the funding and management of several BMGF-funded projects at IRRI such as Green Super Rice, the Genomic Open Source Breeding Informatics Initiative, and Stress-Tolerant Rice for Africa and South Asia. Dr. Atlin is a research manager, agricultural development specialist, and plant breeder with 30 years of experience in cultivar development, genetic analysis, and the management and optimization of breeding programs in the Americas, Africa, and Asia.

Dr. Atlin, who was at IRRI for the Green Super Rice annual meeting, discussed some issues related to breeding and emphasized the need to improve efficiency. He encouraged the young researchers to work in the private sector and acquire experience under its different management style and level of technological advancement.

Dr. Atlin also stressed the advantages of working with different crops at different institutes. He has worked at IRRI, the International Potato Center in Peru, and the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center in Mexico.

The young researchers having lunch with Dr. Atlin were Jeff Detras, Ashish Rajurkar, Varunseelan Murugaiyan, Umair Aslam, Venice Margarette Juanillas, and Frederickson Entila.

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