Organising Committee

	Sue Gardiner Dr Sue Gardiner is leader of the team at Plant & Food Research that has developed and applied of molecular markers in breeding programmes for apple, kiwifruit, pear, hops, blueberry, and raspberry. Dr Gardiner has a PhD from the University of Otago and began her work with genetic mapping in the 1990s with a focus on apple resistances to pests and diseases and success in this area led to a demand for genetic markers by breeders in other crops.
	David Chagné Dr David Chagné is a Scientist at Plant & Food Research in the Breeding and Genomics Portfolio, and an Honorary Senior Research Fellow at the University of Otago. David’s research focuses on the application of genetic mapping and genomics to elucidate the genetic control of important plant characters. Dr Chagné has a strong underpinning interest in the study of DNA variations in the genomes of fruit crops.
	Satish Kumar Dr Satish Kumar is a Senior Research Scientist in the Breeding and Genomics Portfolio. Dr Kumar earned his PhD degree in Genetics and Breeding from Massey University, New Zealand in 1999. Immediately thereafter, he joined as a Scientist (Tree Improvement) at the NZ Forest Research Institute, Rotorua. Dr Kumar joined the Pipfruit Breeding Group at Plant & Food Research in 2009. His area of research includes methods and breeding strategies that use genomic information to fast-forward the development of new cultivars; Genetic analysis and efficient genetic evaluation strategies; Germplasm improvement for novel traits of interest to new cultivar breeding.
	Vincent Bus Dr Vincent Bus is based at Plant & Food Research’s Hawke’s Bay site and is the Science Group Leader for pipfruit and stonefruit breeding, specialised in pest and disease resistance breeding. Dr Bus has a PhD in Plant Pathology from the University of Auckland. His research involves genetic mapping of resistances, an essential component of the programme to develop MAS for the selection of durable resistances.
	Andrew Allan Assoc. Prof. Andrew Allan completed his undergraduate years at the University of Canterbury before completing a PhD at the University of Cambridge, UK. Assoc. Prof. Allan has research Interests in plant responses to the environment, transcriptional regulation, biosynthesis and regulation of phenylpropanoids, plant genomes, working mainly on apple, kiwifruit and peach crops.
	Gail Timmerman-Vaughan Dr Gail Timmerman-Vaughn is the Plant & Food Research Science Group Leader for Annual Crops, which involves breeding of cereals, potatoes, peas and forage brassicas, and holds a PhD from Indiana University, USA. Dr Timmerman-Vaughn’s research focus is on linkage, QTL and association mapping, primarily in peas, with a focus on disease resistance, yield and quality traits, and on bridging the gap between marker-trait discovery and use of markers for selection in plant breeding.
	Tony Conner Dr Tony Conner joined AgResearch in 2011 after almost 30 years at the Lincoln campus of Plant & Food Research and its predecessor organisations. His research career has focused on the applications of plant biotechnology and genomics to crop improvement and the integration of these emerging technologies into plant breeding programmes. Dr Conner has a BSc(Hons) from the University of Canterbury and a PhD in Genetics, from the University of California, Davis. He was elected a Companion of the Royal Society of New Zealand in 2003, became a Fellow of the New Zealand Institute of Agricultural & Horticultural Science in 2010, and was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of New Zealand in 2011.
	Paul Datson Dr Paul Datson is a scientist at Plant & Food Research in the kiwifruit breeding team. Dr Datson earned his PhD degree in chromosome evolution from Auckland University, New Zealand. His research focuses on the application of genetics and genomics for the improvement of kiwifruit germplasm.