A symposium with the topic “Genomics of crops and pathogens for molecular breeding” will be hosted by the Genomics Research Institute at the University of Pretoria (UP) on 6 November 2014. The symposium forms part of a series of symposia sponsored by DuPont across the world since 2008 and is organized by postgraduate members of the FABI team. The organizing committee consists of Erik Visser and Ronishree Mangwanda (co-chairs), Jonathan Botha (website fundi), Miekie Haasbroek (treasurer) and Ncobile Kunene (secretary).
The keynote lecture will be delivered by Geoff Graham, vice-president of hybrid crop product development for DuPont Pioneer. Confirmed plenary speakers for this symposium include Yves Van de Peer (Ghent University, Belgium), Brian Steffenson (University of Minnesota, USA), Dave Berger (University of Pretoria) and Renee Prins (University of the Free State). Interested parties that are unable to attend the event will be able to follow the talks via a live webcast. This event will provide many opportunities for discussion with colleagues and also provide an excellent platform to showcase up and coming research in crop genomics.
Registrations for the symposium are now open and can be accessed from the website (http://dupontafricapbs.up.ac.za/2014/). Registration is free but interested parties are requested to do so before 20 October 2014. Please contact Ronishree Mangwanda (ronishree.mangwanda@fabi.up.ac.za) for more information.