Blog: Meet a Researcher

Michael Beck is an assistant professor for data analytics in the Department of Computer Science at the University of Winnipeg (UWinnipeg). Before moving to Canada in 2017, Beck earned his master’s degree in mathematics and doctorate in computer science from the University of Kaiserslautern in Germany. He has held postdoctoral positions at both UWinnipeg and the University of Manitoba (UM) and lives in Winnipeg.

What is the best part about your job?

The best part about my job is that I get to work in a very interdisciplinary field, where people from many different departments come together. I work with physicists, plant scientists and other computer scientists; it’s a very wide spectrum of people. I might talk to a farmer one day and a scientist the next, then sit down to write some code or head into the lab and start building a robot. It’s so diverse. That variety is what makes the work exciting and what makes me happy week by week.

What got you interested in working in computer science?

It was after doing my postdoc at UM when Christopher Henry and Christopher Bidinosti (both professors at UWinnipeg) asked if I could work on a project. They wanted me to build a robot, create a database to hold images and do a number of things I had never done before. When they asked if I could do it, I said I hadn’t done anything like it before, but I was willing to learn, and that was all they wanted.

My journey went from a very theoretical background in mathematics toward real-world problems. Curiosity and not being afraid to try something I wasn’t trained for is what got me into computer science, and the interdisciplinary nature of the work is what made me stay.

Tell us a bit about your role and the Manitoba Centre for Digital Ag.

As an assistant professor, my role is teaching and research, and I work in digital agriculture with TerraByte. We focus on bringing new technologies into agriculture, from machine learning and equipment such as sensors to new data acquisition methods and figuring out how that data can be useful. This can mean helping plant breeders, agronomy research or even directly on the farm. We have people from physics and computer science working with plant scientists, and together we solve research problems. We don’t know everything about plants, and plant scientists don’t have a full picture of what technologies are available, so bringing those worlds together is where real progress happens.

The Manitoba Centre for Digital Agriculture (MCDA) grew out of this same thinking. When Manitoba Crop Alliance (MCA) put out a “hopes and dreams” call, we responded with the idea of bringing together the many people already working in digital agriculture across Manitoba. Right now, there are individual efforts, but no co-ordinated, province-wide strategy. The MCDA is intended to connect post-secondary institutions, grower associations such as MCA and MPSG, government, industry and farmers, so that work can happen more strategically.

Similar centres exist in the U.S., the UK, Australia and even in Saskatoon, and the level of investment and synergy in those institutions far exceeds what we currently see in Manitoba. Without something like this, my concern is that Manitoba risks being left behind, with new technologies developed elsewhere and brought in at a cost. We want innovation to happen here, not only for economic reasons, but because solutions developed locally are better suited to our conditions. The MCDA isn’t a brick-and-mortar building. It’s more of a consortium that brings people together, avoids duplicated efforts and helps navigate an increasingly complex digital agriculture landscape. No single group can do this alone, and that’s really what the MCDA is about.

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

It’s absolutely instrumental. What we’re trying to build with the MCDA is very ambitious, and it’s hard to find funding channels for something like this. So, when MCA came to us and said, “Tell us about your hopes and dreams,” and then followed through with funding, that was absolutely massive. It’s an opportunity we would have a very hard time finding anywhere else, and we’re incredibly grateful. We really appreciate MCA and its members trusting us with this responsibility.

How does that farmer funding and support directly benefit farmers?

This is still research, and the work we’re doing isn’t going to show up on farms next year. To some level, this is fundamental research. There was a time when chemistry had no business in agriculture, then someone invented fertilizer. There was a time when biology or genetics had no business in agriculture, but look at plant breeding now. I think digital agriculture is a similar story. We don’t yet know exactly what it will look like in 10 or 20 years, but farmer funding will help us shape that future here in Manitoba, together with the people who are living and working in this system.

There are some very tangible benefits already. One example is our work with plant breeders studying Fusarium head blight in wheat. We’re helping researchers assess diseased wheat heads more accurately and faster, which in turn accelerates breeding program and helps deliver more resistant varieties sooner. These are the kinds of projects we want to establish more of through the MCDA. We’re very thankful for the opportunity farmers have given us, and we take that responsibility seriously.

How do you spend your time outside of work?

I play a lot of different games, including board games, tabletop RPGs, computer and card games. I also enjoy sports like volleyball and soccer.

Who or what inspires you?

What I find regularly inspiring is seeing people who are really good at what they do, no matter what their field is. Watching people perform at a high level and master their craft is something I find motivating, and that inspiration can come from anywhere.

Do you have a favourite TV series, movie or podcast at the moment?

One series I really like is The Bear. I also enjoyed Arcane League of Legends, which is based on a computer game but stands on its own as an animated series. Recently, we’ve also been enjoying Pluribus.

Connect with Michael on LinkedIn.

Loveleen Kaur Dhillon joined the University of Manitoba (UM) as its agronomist in residence for special crops in February 2025, a new five-year position funded by Manitoba Crop Alliance (MCA). She grew up on a farm in Punjab, India, and has always been fascinated by what makes crops adapt and thrive across varied soils, seasons and climates.

Dhillon earned her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in agricultural biotechnology at Punjab Agricultural University, then completed her PhD in plant science at the University of Saskatchewan. After her PhD, she worked as a postdoctoral fellow on agronomy and plant breeding-related projects before moving to Winnipeg in 2024. She lives with her husband, two-year-old son and mother-in-law.

What got you interested in this area of work?

My interest in agriculture really initiated in Grade 12, when a guest speaker from an agricultural university came to our school. I was already used to talking with my dad about crops, and I had always been fascinated by how a tiny seed could push through the soil and grow into a plant. When I entered university, something just clicked, and I knew this was the field for me. I had the chance to learn from experts in rice and wheat breeding, and being from Punjab, where nearly 70 per cent of people are connected to agriculture, it felt like a natural path.

Can you tell us about your role at UM?

As the agronomist in residence for special crops, my research looks at corn, flax and sunflowers. Currently, my focus is finding the critical period for weed control in these crops. This year I had trials running across different locations in Manitoba, working with the diversification centres, private contractors and trials at UM’s research farm at Carman.

Apart from weed control, I’m collaborating with researchers from Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC) Ottawa on corn cold tolerance trials. They’ve generated corn inbred lines that can be seeded in cold soils, which could be exciting for Manitoba because of our shorter, colder growing season. I’m also looking at different seeding windows for corn, testing various seeding dates and varieties to see what works best for Manitoba.

Research planning takes a lot of my time. Being new to my position at the university this year, I had to set up my lab, develop protocols and manage the administrative work, while also being on the road most of the summer. Once the plants were out of the ground, I was busier than ever, but it was fun to be outside visiting sites and watching the crops grow.

This winter my focus will shift to extension, going to conferences, meeting farmers and communicating what we’ve found this summer. I’m excited to see the results and hope to have more to share once I analyze the data over the winter.

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

One word: thanks! It’s incredibly motivating to know that farmers are investing in my work. It tells me that they are open to exploring new possibilities for their farms, and it challenges me to deliver research that truly makes a difference. Farmers’ support means everything, and for that I am deeply thankful.

How does that farmer funding and support directly benefit farmers?

Farmers invest in this research because they see potential in these crops and want answers to the challenges they face. My role is to take those questions about weeds, fertility or management and turn them into practical solutions. It really is a partnership – farmers provide the support, and we work to deliver research that helps improve their operations. That funding directly translates into recommendations on what fertilizer works best, when to apply it or how to manage weeds more effectively. I’m deeply grateful for their trust, and I hope they continue to grow these special crops. They’re called “special” for a reason – they can bring real value to their farms.

What do you like to do outside of work?

Life with a two-year-old can be busy, but I enjoy cooking and reading.

What is the best part about your job?

From an early age, I knew I wanted to contribute to advancing farming practices, and that’s what excites me most about my job. I get to do exactly what I always dreamed of doing. During my PhD, I worked on promoting the adoption of field peas in Saskatchewan, and now I’m focused on special crops, supporting the adoption of these crops that can strengthen agriculture and promote sustainability. Every new project I take on is designed with farmers in mind. For me, the best part of this job is being able to use science to make a real difference in farmers’ lives.

What are you excited about for the future of agriculture?

What excites me most is how fast agriculture is evolving. We’re updating the basics, yes, but also stepping into a future shaped by plant breeding breakthroughs, faster cropping systems and AI-driven tools. These innovations are transforming farming in ways we couldn’t have imagined a few years ago. Agriculture has always been resilient, and I believe its future is brighter than ever.

Who or what inspires you?

My greatest inspiration comes from the farmers themselves. The trust they place in me through MCA, and even a simple letter from a farmer sharing their excitement about this agronomist role, reminds me that this work matters. Their support, both personal and financial, drives my commitment to stay honest, dedicated and focused on research that serves them. In many ways, their confidence is what drives me to give my very best.

Follow @LoveleenKaur024 on X.

Filiz Koksel is an associate professor in the Department of Food and Human Nutritional Sciences (FHNS) at the University of Manitoba (UM). She was appointed Manitoba Strategic Research Chair in Sustainable Protein in July this year.

Born in Winnipeg while her father was completing graduate studies at UM, Koksel grew up in Turkey, where she earned her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in food engineering from Middle East Technical University in Ankara. She later returned to Winnipeg to complete her PhD in food science at UM and joined the Department of FHNS as a faculty member in 2017.

She lives in Winnipeg with her husband and their five-year-old daughter.

Tell us a bit about what you’re working on at UM.

My research focuses on food processing, transforming ingredients, both plant-  and animal-based, into nutritious, appealing foods. These processes range from mixing or milling for bakery applications, to extrusion cooking, which is a process used for making puffed snacks like Cheetos or breakfast cereals like Cheerios. Extrusion also allows us to produce a wide range of plant-based meat alternatives.

Broadly, my research explores how to process different ingredients from cereals, pulses, oilseeds and other materials into foods that are both nutritious and appealing to consumers. We test at the ingredient, processing and food levels, and measure a wide range of quality attributes.

We look at nutritional quality; for example, whether proteins or starches are digestible. Starch digestibility affects how quickly blood sugar spikes, while protein digestibility affects how efficiently our bodies absorb amino acids, the building blocks of proteins.

Another key area is techno-functionality, which refers to how food components interact with other components in their environment (e.g., water or oil). Can they bind oil and water? Form stable emulsions or strong gels? These properties are important for shelf life, stability and product texture.

Finally, we study the physical and sensory quality of the products, including appearance, texture and mouthfeel, all critical to consumer acceptance. Are high-protein snacks as crispy as their starchy counterparts? Do high-fibre cereals remain crunchy in milk? Why are plant-based meats sometimes chewier or gummier?

We’re also exploring advanced oxidative processes (AOP) in the “Decontaminating stored flax’ project funded by Manitoba Crop Alliance (MCA) and the Sustainable Canadian Agricultural Partnerhip (a joint federal, provincial and territorial program). Led by Dr. Jitendra Paliwal in collaboration with Dr. Claudia Narvaez, this project aims to reduce the microbial load in flaxseed – a growing concern, as flaxseed is increasingly consumed raw, such as sprinkled on yogurt. The decontamination work (a combination of UV light, hydrogen peroxide and ozone treatment) happens in Dr. Paliwal’s lab and my team studies whether flaxseed’s techno-functional properties, like water binding and gel formation, change after treatment.

What got you interested in this area of work?

My biggest influence was (and still is) my father, also a food scientist specializing in cereal products. He worked in a government lab in Turkey, and I remember visiting him as a child on Take Our Kids to Work Day. Watching cereal scientists test bread dough quality felt like playing in a giant Play-Doh factory, it was fascinating.

I was also very fortunate to have Dr. Martin Scanlon, now the dean of the Faculty of Agricultural and Food Sciences at UM, as my PhD supervisor. He gave me the freedom to explore areas that genuinely interested me, which shaped both my research direction and how I mentor students.

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

Farmer support is essential for sustaining my research program. Their funding enables us to train students who often stay in Manitoba and become future industry experts. It also ensures that research findings flow back to the people who make the work possible. We regularly share reports and are always open to discussing results and implications directly with farmer organizations.

How does that farmer funding and support directly benefit farmers?

Food safety in flax and other grains is a major issue. While my focus is on techno-functionality, our team includes Dr. Claudia Narvaez, a food microbiologist, so we can address multiple aspects of the problem.

As flax becomes more popular for its nutritional benefits, microbial contamination has become a growing concern. Conventional treatments exist, but they can be costly or compromise quality. We are looking for safer, more cost-effective methods that maintain product functionality and help farmers expand markets, improve product quality and gain economic value from their crops.

How do you spend your time outside of work?

Five years ago, before I had my little one, my answer would have been very different! Most of my time now revolves around caring for my family. When I can, I enjoy live music and discovering new restaurants and cafes around Winnipeg.

What is the best part of your job?

Definitely being around students. While much of my time is spent writing grants and papers, I still spend time in the lab. I have a great team of M.Sc. and PhD students, research assistants and post-doctoral fellows. Their energy and curiosity keep the work exciting, and some days, I learn more from them than they do from me. It’s rewarding to watch them grow into the next generation of scientists and mentors.

What are you excited about for the future of agriculture?

Although my research has mainly focused on plant-based foods, my new chair role expands into hybrid and animal-based systems. I’m excited to explore how both sectors can work together toward sustainable and balanced protein production, which is vital for Manitoba’s agricultural future.

What is your favourite food or meal to cook?

I love baking bread. I have this passion for bread since my PhD, which focused on bubbles in bread dough, as they play a crucial role in texture and quality. Gas bubbles make up 10–15 per cent of dough after mixing and expand to 70–80 per cent in the final loaf. Without them, you’d have a dense brick instead of soft bread! For me, baking is meditative—a chance to slow down, unplug and just enjoy the process (even if the results aren’t always perfect).

Check out @foodprolab on Instagram or connect with Filiz Koksel on LinkedIn.

Justin Pahara is a research scientist and project lead in nanotechnology (biotic stresses and adaptation) at Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC) in Lethbridge. He earned an undergraduate degree in immunology and infection and a master’s in cell biology (cancer research) at the University of Alberta before completing a PhD in chemical engineering and biotechnology at the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom.

Pahara lives on one of the longest-running family farms in Lethbridge County, established in 1918.

Where did you work before AAFC?

Before AAFC, I was in commercial entrepreneurship at Amino Labs, an educational biotechnology company that creates kits and tools for high school teachers and home learners to learn about genetic engineering and biotechnology. I created the main core technology for the company.

What got you interested in this area of work?

When I was young, I wanted to be a doctor, but during undergrad I became more interested in how medicines were created and who created them rather than prescribing them. That led me more toward research.

I was drawn to a gap within the space: most labs focus on developing RNA, but few focus on how to reliably deliver it to targets. I already had a background in nanotechnology from my chemical engineering studies, and the bigger question became how to apply it to agriculture. This felt like an area where I could make an impact.

Tell us a bit about what you’re working on at AAFC.

We focus on molecular delivery, engineering nanostructures about 10,000 times smaller than a human hair to go into different organisms. A current project funded in part by Manitoba Crop Alliance is “Screening RNA penetration to achieve gene knockdown in plants for the development of Smart Crop Technologies.”

Most crop treatments today are broad-spectrum, like insecticides or herbicides, and can impact a lot of different organisms and plants in our ecosystem beyond the target. As part of our program, we are working on building highly targeted crop treatments that only target what we want.

That is where RNA interference comes in. Plants and cells have mini-immune systems that chop up harmful RNA, from a virus for example, to prevent it from replicating. By sending in smaller pieces of RNA with the nanostructures we’re developing, we can tell plants to knock down or lower the expression of specific genes.

The challenge is delivery. Our focus is getting these nanostructures into plants, insects and fungi so they could be used by farmers. We’re looking at crop treatments like seed coatings or sprays that could work in the field.

This project began in April 2025, building on past research and learnings within our programs. We are targeting two genes to show proof of principle within this project. One is green fluorescent protein from jellyfish in engineered plants, which glows green under UV light. The other is EPSPS, the enzyme targeted by glyphosate (Roundup). Kochia, a widespread weed across the Prairies, is becoming very resistant to glyphosate. By studying it, we’re hoping to find new approaches for controlling this highly resistant weed.

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

It’s important because farmers decide what matters most to them, and most of our research is externally funded by farmers. Our lab is engineering technology focused, and we want to build things that are useful to farmers.

Funding from producer groups is a step towards creating something useful, rather than “pie in the sky” research that may only be useful decades later. Our goal is to de-risk these sophisticated technologies so the industry can carry them forward. Ideally, we enable small and medium-sized enterprises in Canada to develop these technologies since they often lack the capacity or resources of multinational companies.

Without farmers, this research wouldn’t happen and we’d have to rely on multinational companies, who may or may not pursue these types of solutions.

How does that farmer funding and support directly benefit farmers?

Although the benefits aren’t immediate, we hope by the end of the decade to start getting some next-generation crop treatments out the door. We focus on crop treatments that farmers need, while navigating regulatory aspects, since nanotechnology and RNA applications are very new.

One of the cool things about RNA is that it can be tweaked like code. There’s a very high likelihood that we’ll be able to invent a system with RNA and the nanoparticle that goes into a target, and if that target develops resistance, we can adjust the code slightly and the overall product stays effectively the same. Regulators currently treat each change as a new or different formulation, so part of our work is learning more about regulation and opening dialogue to help pave the way for more efficient adoption.

I’m also open to hearing from farmers about their challenges. Feel free to email me at justin.pahara@agr.gc.ca. This helps us make our nano formulations more practical. For example, we’ve built specialized spray chambers that allow us to safely spray these nano formulations, and we used industrial nozzles like a farmer would. This allows us to develop treatments in a realistic context early on, rather than finding out later that something won’t work in the field.

How do you spend your time outside of work?

We do a lot of gardening and grow a lot of food we eat. I’m into clean energy, we have solar systems and I’m also writing a sci-fi novel for fun.

What’s the best part about your job?

Exploring the unknown. Our lab builds things that don’t exist. We don’t know how they’ll work or how to get there, which makes the little wins exciting. A big part of that is working with a great team.

Follow @jpahara on X (formerly Twitter).

George diCenzo is an associate professor in the Department of Biology and cross-appointed to the Department of Chemical Engineering at Queen’s University. He also holds an adjunct professor position at the University of Manitoba (UM) in the Department of Microbiology.

diCenzo completed his undergraduate and PhD studies at McMaster University in Hamilton, ON, before moving to Italy for his postdoc at the University of Florence.

He lives in Kingston, ON, with his partner, Rebecca Doyle, who’s also a professor that studies rhizobia and rhizobial inoculants for agriculture.

Where did you work before Queen’s University?

Before joining Queen’s as an assistant professor, I was a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Florence in Italy.

What got you interested in this area of work?

It was partly by chance. I was always interested in biology, sciences and research. At one point, I thought I’d be more involved in medically related research. In my second year of undergrad, I was trying to get into a lab to do research in the summer and got one offer for a spot that following summer, Turlough Finan’s Lab, which studied rhizobia. It was more fundamental research, but it was with this agriculturally important bacterium. I took that position, worked in the lab that summer and I really loved working there and all the research we were doing.

I went back the summer after my third year, stayed for a fourth-year thesis and did my PhD thesis all in that same lab. So, in a way, I got into the broader area of working with rhizobia by chance; it was the one lab that gave me a spot when I first applied, and I really enjoyed it.

Tell us a bit about what you’re working on at Queen’s and the UM.

There are three main aspects of my research. One is fundamental work with rhizobia, nitrogen-fixing bacteria that interact with legume plants. We study their genomics, metabolism and diversity to build new knowledge that can support agriculture.

Another area is plastic biodegradation, which is separate from our agriculture work. We’re looking for microbes and enzymes that can break down different plastics for recycling. That’s where my cross appointment to the Department of Chemical Engineering comes in.

And then there’s my applied research in microbial agriculture, where we’re looking for bio-inoculants for different types of crops. Some of that is rhizobia for legumes like beans, some involves other potential microbes that might benefit non-legume crops. That’s the focus of the “Bio-inoculants for the promotion of nutrient use efficiency and crop resiliency in Canadian agriculture” (BENEFIT) project, which I co-lead with Ivan Oresnik at the UM.

The BENEFIT project is funded through Genome Canada by the governments of Ontario and Manitoba, and various grower groups including Manitoba Crop Alliance. It brings together 16 professors across six universities. Broadly speaking, the goal is to try and reduce reliance on chemical fertilizers, or supplement their use, with microbial products, like bacteria and fungi. These microbes can help plants fix nitrogen, solubilize phosphorus, take up nutrients from the environment and some can even have effects on pests, diseases or stresses like cold temperatures.

Microbial inoculants already work well for legumes like soybeans, peas and lentils, where they form a specific interaction with the rhizobia to provide nitrogen to the plants. For crops like wheat and barley that can’t form this interaction with rhizobia, microbial products have historically been less effective. As part of this project, we’re tackling some of those challenges with hopes to develop new microbial products that are more reliable for growers.

To do this, we’ve generated a library of over 2,000 microbes isolated from Canadian soils. The idea is that microbes from Canadian soils are already adapted to our conditions and are more likely to succeed in Canadian fields. We’re now working on characterizing these microbes, looking at how well they’re able to promote plant growth, starting with lab trials and eventually moving to field trials.

We’re also looking at the economics and environmental impact, asking “what level of performance would make these bio-inoculants valuable for growers and for the industry to produce?” The main crops we’re focused on are wheat, barley, canola, beans and peas, with a smaller part on kale. The project is still in its early years. We only have preliminary results at this point; however, we are seeing some promising results for beans that I’m excited about.

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

It’s essential. We don’t get core funding from the universities, so all of our research relies on funding from external sources. Support from farmers allows us to hire people and cover costs associated with doing the work.

Farmer funding is also critical because many government programs require matching dollars from industry. For example, with the Genome Canada grant every dollar from farmers helps us unlock another dollar from government. That leverage means their contributions go even further.

How does that farmer funding and support directly benefit farmers?

Our goal is always to make results public, so farmers or companies can use them to create products that directly benefit farms. If we find a new microbial product, for example, the goal would be to make it commercially available so farmers can access it.

That said, research is never guaranteed. We’re doing everything we can to develop bio-inoculants that can potentially help farmers, but sometimes science doesn’t deliver the results we hope for. It’s important to not overpromise, but with continued support, we’re optimistic that in a few years we’ll have exciting updates to share.

How do you spend your time outside of work?

I like going for hikes with my dog, and I also like watching the Toronto Maple Leafs continue to get eliminated from the playoffs. I still cheer for them every year, regardless.

What is the best part about your job?

There’s lots I like about my job, but if I must pick one, it’s the discovery aspect. With research, we’re always asking questions and trying to find answers to those questions with experiments. I find it a lot of fun when we get results from new experiments, and sometimes answers to those questions, and we’re the first people in the world to know what that is. It’s a lot of fun to be able to do that and spend the time thinking about these things.

What is your favourite food or meal to cook?

Homemade pizza. I have a pizza stone for my barbecue, and making a nice Italian-style pizza on it is the best.

Follow @George_diCenzo on X or connect with him on LinkedIn.  

Born and raised in Sri Lanka, Nandika Bandara is an associate professor and Tier 2 Canada Research Chair in Food Proteins and Bioproducts in the Department of Food and Human Nutritional Sciences at the University of Manitoba (UM).

He completed his undergraduate degree in agriculture specializing in food science and technology at the University of Peradeniya, Sri Lanka. He then worked in the industry for four years before moving to Canada to do his master’s degree in food science and technology and his PhD at the University of Alberta.

Where did you work before UM?

After completing my PhD, I began a postdoctoral fellowship (PDF) position at the University of Guelph in the Department of Food Science, supported by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada PDF scholarship. I stayed there five months before I got an assistant professor role at Dalhousie University.

What got you interested in this area of work?

When I was in middle school, there was a 50^th anniversary of the Faculty of Agriculture at the University of Peradeniya, the oldest university in my country. A family friend was staying in our home, going to university, and he took me to that celebration exhibition. After seeing all the animals, equipment and different farming systems, I knew agriculture was something I would really like. I selected agriculture as my high school major and went directly to that same university for the agriculture degree program.

Tell us a bit about what you are working on at UM.

My research program focuses on improving the protein and bioproduct industries using biopolymers generated in agriculture and food processing. I have three main research themes:

1. Sustainable technologies for protein processing and functionality improvement: Developing nonthermal processing, fermentation, and dry and wet protein fractionation technologies to produce functional protein ingredients.
2. Advancing fundamental knowledge related to protein utilization: Using advanced analytical and material characterization techniques to understand protein functionality.
3. Advancing circular bioeconomy in the alternative protein industry: Use byproducts and waste material from agriculture (oilseed meal, for example) to produce new food ingredients and develop biopolymers for use in sustainable packaging, wood adhesive and other polymer applications.

In a project funded in part by Manitoba Crop Alliance, we are working with sunflower meal from the commercial oil extraction process. One of the biggest challenges with sunflower meal is that it contains chlorogenic acid, which makes the meal green. This chlorogenic acid will co-extract during traditional protein extraction methods. If you bake something with the sunflower protein, it turns green due to a reaction between chlorogenic acid and amino acid.

In this project we developed two new protein extraction methods where we can get rid of those colour compounds and produce an off-white colour sunflower protein. This work focuses on developing protein ingredients and using the remaining material (cellulose and lignin) for value-added applications.

Then we will look at how sunflower protein can compete with other proteins. Right now, the plant protein market is dominated by soy and pea protein to a certain extent. The oil is still the main component, but if we can get a food commodity from the sunflower meal it will increase the value of the crop for farmers.

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

Farmer based funding is huge. This is the second time I have received farmer-based funding for value-added research. To see that farmers are interested in value-added opportunities is encouraging. You can increase primary production to a certain level, but eventually you will hit a ceiling, right? When you cannot go beyond that, you must generate more income from the existing resources you have. That is how you advance the industry, not just by trying to increase yields, but by generating value for the other components.

How does that farmer funding and support directly benefit farmers?

If we can commercialize sunflower protein, farmers will get additional value for sunflowers, not just for the oil. If everything goes well for this project, we will get the sunflower protein as a protein ingredient. That is one revenue stream. If we can break down the lignin and cellulose and produce the other platform chemicals, that can be another revenue source. It is important to increase yields, and it is important to focus on agronomic practices, but at the same time, the future will be based on value-added opportunities.

How do you spend your time outside of work?

I play cricket. We have both competitive and recreational playing opportunities here in Winnipeg.

What gets you most excited about your work?

Working with trainees and seeing them become successful. I have 23 trainees, and they are extremely successful. For example, they have received national and international awards. American Oil Chemists’ Society, which is involved with the sunflower industry, has two major awards for students: the Thomas Smouse Memorial Fellowship and the Honored Student Award. For two consecutive years, one of my trainees won the Thomas Smouse Memorial Fellowship, and in 2025, another student won the Honored Student Award.

The Institute of Food Technologists, an international society, offers the Feeding Tomorrow Fund, a graduate scholarship program, and presents approximately 90-100 scholarships each year globally. Last year, Canadian students received 10, and my trainees got seven of them. For three consecutive years, my trainees have secured the grand prize in the graduate student competition at the Manitoba Materials Conference. I have also had trainees advance to lead international student societies (American Oil Che), which brings me great satisfaction to see them succeed.

What is your favourite food or meal to cook?

Authentic Sri Lankan food! I really enjoy cooking. I invited my entire research group for dinner recently and they really loved the authentic Sri Lankan foods we have.

Connect with Nandika on LinkedIn.

Follow the Food Protein and Bioproduct Lab on Instagram.

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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