Dr. Rim Lassoued
Rim has been working as a Professional Research Associate since October 2015. With her team led by Stuart J Smyth and Peter WB Phillips, she is been managing a multi-year survey project that investigates expert opinions on the application of new breeding technologies in the agri-food industry and their potential to ensure global food security.
Rim obtained a PhD degree in Agricultural Economics from the University of Saskatchewan, Canada, in 2014. Her doctoral thesis focused on how trust in the Canadian food system and in brands builds consumer confidence in food. She also holds a MSc degree in Business Economics and Management from the Mediterranean Agronomic Institute of Chania, Greece, and a Bachelor of Engineering from the National Institute of Agronomy of Tunisia.
If you would like to know more about Dr. Lassoued’s research related to this posting you can find them on the publications page of the multi-year project Regulation of New Breeding Techniques webpage.
Dr. William Kerr
William A. Kerr is University Distinguished Professor at the University of Saskatchewan, Canada. He joined the Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics at the U of S in 1999. His major area of research is international trade and international commercial policy. He has over 300 academic publication including 25 books. Recent titles include: Handbook on International Trade Policy (2007); A Guide to the Global Business Environment (2014) and Conflict, Chaos and Confusion – The Crisis in the International Trading System (2010). He is editor of the Estey Journal of International Law and Trade Policy.
Dr. Graham Scoles
Dr. Graham Scoles grew up on a small farm in England. He received his undergraduate education in Plant Science at the University of Reading, UK. While there he developed an interest in crop evolution and plant breeding. He worked for a year at the Plant Breeding Institute, Cambridge, and while there was offered a graduate student position by a visiting scientist from the University of Manitoba. He obtained his M.Sc. and Ph.D. in plant breeding from the University of Manitoba in 1979 and joined the Department of Plant Sciences at the University of Saskatchewan. His teaching and research have been in the area of crop cytogenetics and biotechnology as it applies to plant breeding. He has served as President of the Genetics Society of Canada, Chair of the North American Agricultural Biotechnology Council and is the Co-Editor of Genome, a Canadian cytogenetics/genomics journal.
Dr. Simona Lubieniechi
Dr. Simona Lubieniechi is a Professional Research Associate in the Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics at the University of Saskatchewan in Saskatoon, Canada. Her current research interests include behavioural economics, in particular prospect theory and its extension to framing effects, overconfidence, as well as climate change mitigation policies and the economics of biofuel policies. She completed her PhD studies in agricultural economics with a specialization on the economics of climate change mitigation.
Dr. Priyanka Gupta
It has been quite a journey in agricultural research. I began working on grasspea in India, which later expanded internationally in 2012 at ICARDA in Morocco as a Vavilov Fellow. This experience sparked my interest in crops that are resilient under challenging conditions. My work then extended into wheat research during my PhD as a Monsanto (Bayer) Beachell-Borlaug Scholar, followed by postdoctoral research at Université Laval and the Centre de recherche sur the grains (CÉROM) in Canada.
Now based in Québec City, which I proudly call home, I work remotely as a Scientific Consultant with the Fernand Lambein Fund through the GROW–Grasspea initiative. My work focuses on strengthening collaboration, supporting platforms like GrasspeaNet, and contributing to outreach for this remarkable crop. I have a strong interest in scientific communication, particularly writing and connecting people across the global research community. I am motivated to bring greater attention and collaboration to underutilized yet resilient crops such as grasspea.
I also serve as a board member of the Borlaug Training Foundation, supporting the training and capacity building of the next generation of researchers. I am always open to new ideas and collaborations that contribute to resilient and sustainable food systems.
👉 Connect with me on LinkedIn-PriyankaGupta and X @VidhiPriyanka for updates and collaborations.