ICARDA former visiting PhD student, Damiano Puglisi, wins SIGA Prize
ICARDA is proud to announce that our former visiting Ph.D. student, Dr. Damiano Puglisi, has been awarded the Carlo Jucci Prize for Plant Breeding and Biotechnology from the Italian Society of Agrarian Genetics (SIGA). Dr. Puglisi visited ICARDA in the framework of iBarMed (ARimNet Funded) Project coordinated by Dr. Agostino Fricano and Dr. Luigi Cattivelli (CREA, Italy).
Dr. Puglisi, Ph.D. student at the University of Catania under the supervision of Prof. Angela Lo Piero, won the prize for his contributions to a breakthrough in plant genomes. His work partially carried out during his time with ICARDA and in collaboration with the other institutions involved in iBarMed, focused on the Genomic Prediction of Grain Yield in a Barley MAGIC Population Modeling Genotype per Environment Interaction.
Further analysis carried out in ICARDA’s physiology labs, under the supervision of Dr. Agostino Fricano and Dr. Andrea Visioni, revealed that genomic prediction models may be used to predict belowground and physiological traits and pave the way to practical applications for barley improvement.
Dr. Puglisi’s open-access papers are available online on:
Dr. Puglisi will present his work at the 65th SIGA Annual Congress in Piacenza, Italy (September 6 – September 9, 2022)
Academics, scientists, public and private institutions of national and regional, governmental and non-governmental organizations, and other stakeholders attend SIGA's annual National Congress to discuss all aspects of science and innovation for sustainable agriculture intensification, including the contribution of plant genetics and breeding.
iBarMed focused on tackling climate change effects on cereal production in the Mediterranean region, using three different approaches:
- Implement new advances for using genomic selection methodology in barley and cereal breeding.
- Advancing our knowledge on the physiological role of aboveground and belowground traits that contribute to drought tolerance.
- Contributing to a better understanding of genotype per environment interactions.