Rebecca Hallett is the Interim Associate Vice President Research of the Agri-Food Partnership in the Office of Research at the University of Guelph (U of G). She holds a bachelor’s in biogeography from the University of Toronto, as well as a master’s in pest management and a PhD in entomology from Simon Fraser University (SFU). Following her PhD, she spent two years working as a postdoctoral researcher with Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada in Saskatoon. She lives in Guelph with her husband and has two adult children.

What was your previous role at the U of G?

I’ve been a professor in the School of Environmental Sciences since 1998. Before my current role, I was Associate Dean of Research and Graduate Studies for the Ontario Agricultural College, which includes six departments that focus on food, agriculture, communities and the environment.

What got you interested in entomology?

I must give some credit to my dad. He has always been very devoted and academic about his hobbies. When I was a tween, he began collecting insects. I went into botany because I always loved plants, but the insect connection was there.

When I got to SFU, there were exciting things happening in entomology and fewer opportunities in integrated pest management on the botanical side. I had done some travelling and volunteering in India and thought I might get into international agricultural development work. When I couldn’t use this experience as part of my master’s, I connected with a Canadian entomologist working on a development project in Indonesia. I went to work with him and my move into entomology happened. I knew I wanted to be a scientist from a young age, but I really wanted to do something that was going to solve problems. So, agriculture and entomology were ways for me to do that.

Tell us a bit about what you’re working on at U of G.

My current position oversees the university side of the Ontario Agri-Food Innovation Alliance, a collaboration between the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Agribusiness (OMAFA); U of G; and Agricultural Research and Innovation Ontario, whose research stations we operate as part of our research activities.

My training was in chemical ecology using insect pheromones and host plant compounds to manipulate insect behavior for pest management, which has been a theme throughout my work. I work closely with OMAFA, various crop specialists and the provincial entomologists to look at invasive or emerging pest issues that affect Ontario agriculture.

I also collaborate with Jocelyn Smith on the “Mitigation and management of Cry1F resistance in European corn borer in Canada” project, of which Manitoba Crop Alliance is a funding partner. Jocelyn is the scientific lead and we co-advise graduate students.

Two aspects I’ve been most closely involved in are work by master’s students Emily Glasgow and Jenna Straughan. Emily looked at potential links between pheromone races and BT susceptibility, and the heritability and fitness implications of the field-evolved Cry1F resistance trait. Emily graduated a couple of years ago and we’re now co-advising Jenna on related work. Her focus is the phenology of European corn borer and its occurrence in Ontario, number of generations and use of degree-day modelling to predict adult flights. She’s also done work on isotope detection and the relationship between pheromone races and host plant types, testing whether they are as separated on distinct host plants as the literature indicates.

This work is key to understanding the pest’s life history and timing of occurrence, and has implications for integrated resistance management strategies.

What can you say about the value of farmers providing funding and support to your organization?

Support from farmers is extremely important, as they tell us what they need and what challenges they are facing. Today, so much research funding is reliant on leveraging funds provided by industry. I’ve only seen that trend increase through my career as a faculty member. Many of our funding programs are dependent upon showing that what we are doing is important to industry or to the agricultural sector. So, the funding provided by producer organizations is critical to making research – and solutions to the challenges growers are facing – happen.

How does that farmer funding and support directly benefit farmers?

Ideally, through these research projects we can return results to growers. We aim to get that research into practice to help to inform their management practices and decision-making.

Some of the most rewarding things I’ve done have been those that have resulted in changes and improvements for growers in terms of pest management and decision-making. We did one of the first insect-based apps, Aphid Advisor, for example. It considered the natural enemies (mainly lady beetles) that were being seen on soybean plants at the same times as aphids to adjust the decision as to whether an insecticide spray would be needed. In the end, we were able to deliver a service that they could use to improve their decision-making. This is one example of a research idea coming from growers – they saw the lady beetles in their soybean fields and wanted to know what contribution they were making to combatting the soybean aphid.

How do you spend your time outside of work?

My husband and I really enjoy travel. We spend a lot of time talking about where we might go next and what we might do there. We have a little “pandemic trailer” we bought to do some camping and we plan to do the west coast of Newfoundland this summer.

What gets you most excited about your work?

Trying to make a difference. In all the roles I hold as a professor and administrator I try to lead from a place of caring and I want to help solve problems. That motivates me.

Any favourite travel experiences you’d like to share?

I absolutely love Southeast Asia: the people, the food, the climate and the biodiversity is incredible. I learned to scuba dive last year. We went to Raja Ampat in eastern Indonesia, which is one of the most biodiverse marine environments in the world, and it was great. If you’ve been to the Caribbean, there are about 57 species of coral there. Raja Ampat is part of the Coral Triangle and there are over 600 coral species, so all the little ecological niches for all these different organisms to occupy is amazing. We saw such incredible things, from nearly microscopic creatures almost too hard to see to ocean manta rays with 15-foot wingspans floating over top of us. It was just mind blowing.

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Maria Antonia Henriquez is a research scientist in wheat pathology at Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada’s (AAFC) Morden Research and Development Centre (RDC).

Born and raised in Colombia, she completed her bachelor’s degree in agronomy and master’s degree in plant breeding at the National University of Colombia. She moved to Canada and received her PhD in plant pathology at the University of Manitoba (U of M), which was followed by postdoctoral research at the Brandon RDC.

Henriquez is the president-elect of the Canadian Phytopathological Society. She lives in Morden with her husband Oscar Molina, who is also a research scientist at the Morden RDC, leading the Integrated Crop Production Systems Agronomy program.

Where did you work before AAFC?

Before moving to Canada, I worked as a research assistant at the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) for five years. CIAT is part of CGIAR, formerly the Consultative Group for International Agricultural Research, a global research partnership that unites international organizations engaged in research about food security.

What got you interested in this area of work?

My father had a big impact on my decision to get into agriculture research. At home, he had a large library with books and encyclopedias covering a wide range of topics, including science, philosophy, medicine and history. When I was nine or 10 years old, he challenged me to find different topics to discuss with him. During my childhood and adolescence, reading those books became my hobby. I spent hours in the library every day, and science and genetics got my attention. I also got inspired to do research with plants. During my bachelor courses and when I did my thesis, I became passionate about plant pathology and plant-microbial interactions at the molecular level. That was my starting point – I will always remember those years.

Tell us a bit about what you’re working on at the Morden RDC.

In my research program, we are using cutting-edge technologies and bioinformatic tools to find innovative and sustainable technologies to enhance genetic resistance and management strategies for Fusarium head blight (FHB) and leaf spot diseases in wheat. I work closely with breeders, plant pathologists, geneticists and agronomists to incorporate disease resistance into Canadian wheat cultivars and conduct applied plant pathology work in terms of crop rotations, development of biopesticides, digital agriculture and disease surveillance.

Many of these projects are funded partially by Manitoba Crop Alliance (MCA). I am leading the project “TEN-TG: A tilling and genome resource for FHB improvement” along with Curtis Pozniak from the Crop Development Centre at the University of Saskatchewan. In this project, we are working with AAC Tenacious, the only FHB-resistant wheat cultivar registered in Canada. We have identified AAC Tenacious mutants that are susceptible to FHB. As we are sequencing the genome of AAC Tenacious, we are going to compare the DNA sequence of those susceptible mutants with the genome of AAC Tenacious to pinpoint the exact mutations resulting in the susceptible phenotype. This comparison will tell us with a reasonable degree of confidence that those genes are in fact involved in resistance. We anticipate this research and the genetic resources we are developing will have an impact in the future with variety development in Canada.

In a digital agriculture project, I am collaborating with Chris Henry from the U of M and Chris Bidinosti from the University of Winnipeg in developing automated systems for detecting and assessing FHB in wheat using machine learning and imaging technologies. By creating both indoor and outdoor automatic systems, the project seeks to expedite the breeding of FHB-resistant wheat cultivars, a model that could be easily adapted to other cereal crops.

I am also leading a project with Steve Robinson where we are evaluating RNA-based fungicides for controlling FHB in field trials. We are currently testing the best combination of RNA-based solutions in yield plots and comparing those biopesticides with traditional fungicides.

What can you say about the value of farmers providing funding and support to your organization?

Funding and support from farmers are essential to fostering innovation, supporting research and development, and leads to the creation of more efficient farming techniques, crop varieties and pest management solutions. This funding is very important. It allows us to explore sustainable agriculture practices that can reduce chemical inputs, enhance soil health and preserve biodiversity. I am grateful for the support from farmers to my research.

How does that farmer funding and support directly benefit farmers?

The funding and support we receive from growers is a step closer to finding solutions to problems that affect the sustainability of the farms. The economic and social impacts extend beyond the individual grower, affecting the entire agricultural sector. By backing different research initiatives, farmers help us ensure their voices are heard and their challenges are addressed.

How do you spend your time outside of work?

Cycling, reading, gardening and listening to music.

What is the best part of your job?

There are so many things, but I would say the opportunity to work towards solutions for problems affecting Canadian agriculture. Particularly, working with important cereal diseases, such as FHB, but the most important is working in collaboration with a diverse group of people from AAFC, government partners, the private sector and universities.

Who or what inspired you?

My father. He is the most intelligent person I have met in my life, and his deep knowledge and understanding across various subjects was exceptional. Endless conversations about the power of the mind, critical thinking and personal values, like integrity, compassion, forgiveness, resilience and strong work ethic, shape who I am as a person. He was always challenging me and telling me to look at things from a different perspective or look for the answer in a different way. That has really stuck with me.