Agriculture: Announced winners of the Carlotta Award 2022 for wheat research

The winners of the second edition of the Carlotta Award, addressed to women scientists under 40 engaged in wheat research, promoted by ENEA, National Academy of Sciences, known as the XL (40) and METROFOOD-RI have been announced. The prizes have been delivered on 27th October, in Bologna, as part of the International Congress From Seed to Pasta IV.

The winners and special mentions of the International Award were selected by a special International jury made up of 12 experts, including ENEA researcher Patrizia Galeffi (scientific director of the Carlotta Award Project), and chaired by Prof. Margherita Venturi, University of Bologna and member of the National Academy of Sciences.

Established on 2018, the International Award is dedicated to the memory of Carlotta Parisani, collaborator, as well as wife, of the geneticist Nazareno Strampelli, who in the early 1900s, with her revolutionary crosses on wheat, contributed to the agricultural and economic development of our Country.

This year the award was sponsored by the International Organizations Wheat Iniziative International Program’, ICARDA CGIAR Research Centre, EUCARPIA and KWS.

On the subject of 'Wheat genetics, genomics and breeding', the first and second prizes for the originality of their scientific work were awarded respectively to the Chinese researcher Caixia Lan of Huazhong Agricultural University (China) and the Ukrainian researcher Valentyna Klymiuk of the University of Saskatchewan (Canada).

New in this edition, the inclusion of a second theme: "Sustainable wheat production for food security, food quality and safety, durum wheat-pasta value chain" focused on the production, safety and healthiness of the wheat supply chain. The first prize was assigned to the Italian researcher Ilaria Marcotuli of the University of Bari "Aldo Moro", while the second prize went to the Indian researcher Jyoti S. Sharma of the University of Minnesota Twin Cities (USA).

In addition to the researches object of the main awards, on the same themes four special mentions were selected and assigned to other young female researchers coming from developing or emerging countries.

Received a special mention: Hafssa Kabbaj and Meryem Zaïm of the International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Area - ICARDA (Morocco), Divya Ambati of ICAR (India) and Paula Silva of the National Agricultural Research Institute - INIA (Uruguay).

https://carlottaaward.weebly.com

Patrizia Galeffi, ENEA - Casaccia Research Center, Biotechnology and Agroindustry Division, Italy,

Giuseppina Del Signore, ENEA - Casaccia Research Center, Biotechnology and Agroindustry Division, Italy,