Michelle Nay honoured with SFIAR-Award 2020
ETH Doctoral Scholarship fellow Michelle Nay has won the SFIAR PhD Award for her project "Improving smallholder farmers’ food security through disease resistant common beans".
In many parts of the world, beans belong to the leading staple foods and most important protein sources. However, plant diseases like the angular leaf spot disease (ALS) pose a regular threat to bean yields – especially for smallholder farmers who often lack access to pesticides and safe application practice thereof.
As a more sustainable and effective solution, Dr. Michelle Nay from the Molecular Plant Breeding group focused her research on providing the scientific background to breeding plants resistant to ALS. As part of her study, she investigated the genetic basis of disease resistance in beans and developed tools that facilitate resistance transfer to new bean varieties through plant breeding.
The external page Swiss Forum for International Agricultural Research (SFIAR) offers an annual award for graduates and scientists of a Swiss institution who work in agricultural research for development. The award winners were honoured at a public award ceremony on 8 December 2020 at BFH-HAFL in Zollikofen.
Further information:
external page Interview with Michelle Nay SFIAR has talked with Michelle to discuss the inspiration behind her winning research and her plans for the future.