The new director of the CGIAR Research Program on Wheat brings many years of experience in wheat genetics, wheat genetic resources and wheat pre-breeding.

This story by Marta Millere was originally published on the CIMMYT website.

In November 2020, Alison Bentley will be joining the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) as the new director of the Global Wheat Program and the CGIAR Research Program on Wheat (WHEAT). She will be succeeding Hans Braun, who has steered CIMMYT’s Global Wheat Program for the last 16 years, and has led the CGIAR Research Program on Wheat since its establishment in 2014.

Bentley expressed that she is thrilled to join CIMMYT and excited about the opportunity to harness science and breeding to improve livelihoods. She believes in a collective vision for equitable food supply and in science-led solutions to deliver impact.

“It really is an exciting time for wheat research: the international community has worked together to produce sequence and genomic resources, new biological and physiological insights, a wealth of germplasm and tools for accelerating breeding. This provides an unparalleled foundation for accelerating genetic gains and connecting ideas to determine how we can practically apply these tools and technologies with partners to deliver value-added outputs,” she said.

Bentley has worked on wheat — wheat genetics, wheat genetic resources and wheat pre-breeding — her entire career. She is the UK’s representative on the International Wheat Initiative Scientific Committee, and is a committee member for the Genetics Society, the UK Plant Sciences Federation, the Society of Experimental Botany, and the Editorial Board of Heredity.

Bentley obtained her PhD from the University of Sydney, Australia, in 2007. She then joined the National Institute of Agricultural Botany (NIAB) in the UK, where she progressed from Senior Research Scientist (2007) to Program Leader for Trait Genetics (2013), and Director of Genetics and Breeding (since 2016).

Currently, Bentley is involved in international research projects in Ethiopia, The Gambia, Ghana, India and Pakistan. She leads a number of UK-India projects with partners including Punjab Agricultural University, the Indian National Institute of Plant Genome Research and the University of Cambridge, studying variation and developing wheat and other cereal germplasm with enhanced resource use efficiency.