The first DuPont Plant Breeding Symposium to be held on African soil was recently hosted by the Genomics Research Institute (GRI) at the University of Pretoria.  Significantly, a team of FABIans (Ronishree Mangwanda, Erik Visser, Jonathan Botha, Ncobile Kunene and Miekie Haasbroek) also affiliated with the Department of Plant Science, Department of Genetics, and the GRI, took on the challenge of organizing the Symposium.
The theme was “Genomics of crops and pathogens for molecular breeding” and brought plant breeders, government officials, researchers, students and academics together to discuss the impact of genomics research on plant breeding. 
International Plenary speakers were Dr Geoff Graham and Dr Peter Freymark (DuPont Pioneer), Prof Yves van de Peer (Ghent University VIB, Belgium and UP GRI), and Prof Brian Steffenson (University of Minnesota, USA).  Local plenary speakers were Dr Rikus Kloppers (PANNAR SEED), Dr Renée Prins (CenGen), and Prof Dave Berger (UP). FABI students (Johan Liversage, David Read) as well as a postdoctoral fellow (Nanette Christie) shared their research with the audience.

More photos of the symposium can be seen in the gallery.