Head of IITA’s banana breeding program receives dedicated scientist award at the International Banana Conference
The Head of IITA’s banana breeding program, Rony Swennen received the “Dedicated Scientist Award for his exemplary commitment to Banana research” during an International Conference on Banana held in Trichy, India on 22–25 February 2020.
Swennen also gave the first keynote presentation of the conference on “Breeding plantain and cooking banana (Matooke and Mchare) hybrids for Africa utilizing approaches of global relevance.’” The paper’s co-authors were IITA scientists: Delphine Amah, Brigitte Uwimana, Trushar Shah, Batte Michael, Hassan Mduma, George Mahuku, and Allan Brown.
Other IITA scientists who participated and presented at the conference included Leena Tripathi, Plant Biotechnologist based in IITA-Kenya, who presented on “Application of transgenic and genome editing technologies for improving banana wilt disease” and Brigitte Uwimana, Banana Molecular Breeder based in IITA-Uganda, who presented on “Molecular approaches in banana improvement: Success of ‘Breeding Better Bananas’”.
