Happ attends 2018 U.S. Borlaug Summer Institute on Global Food Security

Thursday, August 16, 2018
Mary Happ
Mary Happ

Mary Happ, a University of Nebraska–Lincoln agronomy doctoral student specializing in plant breeding and genetics, was one of 40 selected to attend the 2018 U.S. Borlaug Summer Institute on Global Food Security, June 3-16 at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana.

The annual 2-week long learning program for graduate students, funded by the U.S. Government’s Feed the Future Initiative, centers on developing participant understanding of the challenges surrounding global food security. It provides a working knowledge of these issues, with a focus on cross-disciplinary problem solving of real-world development challenges.

Mary Happ presents at 2018 U.S. Borlaug Summer Institute on Global Food Security at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana.
Mary Happ presents her research at the 2018 U.S. Borlaug Summer Institute on Global Food Security at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana.

Students invited to the program participated in a variety of activities, including lectures from personnel in a variety of disciplines related to food, from production to consumption. Small group discussions and case studies gave attendees a chance to improve their skills in working and communicating with cross disciplinary groups towards a common end goal. Field trips to farm research facilities provided an opportunity to learn about the process of implementing new innovations on a production scale. Some participants were also invited to present as part of a special topics panel, and answer questions related to their expertise.

In attending the Borlaug Summer Institute, participants step outside of their comfort zones and begin to seek integrated approaches to feeding the world. Affordable access to safe, nutritious, and abundant food involves many people, from many different backgrounds, iterating through several smaller problems and solutions to solve. It requires a network of expertise communicating to make the most impactful solutions.

Happ’s work focuses on quantifying phenotypic plasticity in soybeans and exploiting that within a breeding program to maximize trait stability across target geographical regions. Currently, breeders are restricted to assessing stability until late in the breeding process, where few lines are available for selection. Happ is exploring the potential utility of several genomics approaches to provide an early selection method that enriches multi-environment trials with stable material.

Happ is advised by David Hyten, Haskins Professor in Plant Genetics and agronomy associate professor of soybean genetics and genomics.

The U.S Borlaug Fellows program is a part of Center for Global Food Security at Purdue University, headed by Professor Gebisa Ejita.

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