These conference reports are written by the beneficiaries of our travel fund.
Click here to read more about the fund and apply yourself
13th – 18th January 2023
I am very grateful to have been awarded a travel grant which allowed me to attend the PAG conference. After spending a significant portion of my PhD under COVID lockdown, it was a great relief to be able to attend an in-person conference and network with people in my field. PAG is one of biggest agricultural genomics conference, bringing together many industry companies and academics from around the world to discuss the latest state-of-the-art methods and technologies.
I had the privilege of not only attending the conference, but also presenting my PhD work at the Plant Disease Resistance workshop. I gave a 15 minute talk titled ‘Identifying regulators of lettuce immunity by transcriptomics and network inference’ and it focused on the use of network inference to predict key regulators of lettuce defense.
During the conference, I had the opportunity to attend many talks and sessions that were relevant to my research interests. One of the highlights of the conference was the plenary talk given by Professor Ian Godwin from the University of Queensland. Prof Goodwin’s talk discussed work developing drought-tolerant sorghum varieties with desirable protein traits for animal feed, but also stressed the importance of field trails taking scientific discoveries from the bench to the field.
In addition to the plenary talk, I attended many other talks and sessions that were focused on plant biotechnology and genomics. These included sessions on plant-microbe interactions, crop improvement, and gene editing. I also had the opportunity to visit the exhibit hall, where I learned about the latest technologies and products that are being used in agricultural genomics.
As a final year PhD student, I found it especially beneficial to attend this conference because it provided me with the opportunity to explore potential job opportunities in the industry. Throughout the conference, I had the chance to meet representatives from various companies and learn about their work in the field of agricultural genomics. This was particularly exciting for me, as it gave me insight into the kinds of research and innovation that occur within the biotech sector.
Overall, the PAG conference was an excellent opportunity for me to learn about the latest advances in plant biotechnology and genomics, to present my own research, and to network with other researchers and professionals in my field. I am grateful to the BSPP for providing me with the travel grant that made it possible for me to attend this conference.
Harry Pink
University of York
These conference reports are written by the beneficiaries of our travel fund.
Click here to read more about the fund and apply yourself
