Curtis Pozniak, a plant science researcher at the University of Saskatchewan, is the recipient of the university’s 2010 New Researcher Award.
The wheat breeder earned a Ph D at the university in 2003 and has developed an international reputation for his work in plant genetics.
He has successfully incorporated gene marker-assisted selection into his wheat breeding program at the university’s Crop Development Centre. The technique uses DNA markers that are tightly linked to genes to screen plant material for specific traits such as seed pigment, disease resistance and cadmium concentration.
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He and his graduate students have identified DNA markers that are recognized globally and used in plant breeding programs around the world.
“As DNA screening technology continues to improve, more DNA markers will become available for routine use in our plant breeding programs,” he said.
In 2008, Pozniak won the best research poster presentation at the International Durum Wheat Syposium. More recently, he received the Young Agronomists Award from the Canadian Society of Agronomy.
CDC Verona, a durum variety that Pozniak developed, was the first to meet stringent new quality criteria that were introduced by buyers of Canadian durum.
