Viktor Korzun has been Head of Cereal Breeding Technologies at KWS since 1999 and is Global Lead Scientific Affairs since 2018. He focuses on national and international collaboration, relationships with world-leading universities and institutions and the promotion of young talented scientists in plant breeding research. Viktor Korzun has more than 30 years of experience in the development and application of molecular markers and novel breeding technologies in cereals. He has authored or co-authored 175 full publications in high-ranking scientific journals and books (h-index is 73). 

Mark Sorrells is Professor of Plant Breeding and Genetics in the Plant Breeding and Genetics Section at Cornell University. He joined the Department of Plant Breeding and Biometry in 1978 and has been full professor of plant breeding since 1991. Sorrells has authored or co-authored more than 350 peer reviewed publications. He has received the Crop Science Society of America Outstanding Research Award and the Cornell College of Agriculture Outstanding Accomplishments in Applied Research award. He specializes in plant breeding methodologies and strategies and develops new varieties of wheat, oats, and barley. Title of the talk: “The rye pangenome – do you know your germplasm?”

Thomas Miedaner is head of the Rye & Biotic Stress Research Group at the State Plant Breeding Institute, University of Hohenheim, Stuttgart, Germany. He has been involved in rye breeding and resistance genetics in cereals since 1988. Main topics are phenotypic and genomics-based breeding of hybrid rye and host resistance to Fusarium diseases in wheat, triticale, rye and maize, to ergot in rye and to various rusts (yellow rust, stem rust, leaf rust) in rye, triticale and wheat. He authored 219 peer-reviewed papers and supervised 22 Ph.D. students. His group currently involves seven technicians, three M.Sc. students, and three Ph.D. students.

Trained in biology and genetics, Nils Stein has made major contributions to the understanding of cereal genomes by leading international efforts in genome sequencing of barley, wheat and rye. This expertise has been instrumental for taking the next step into cereal pangenome analysis and the systematic unlocking of genebank collections of the small grain cereals. Since October 2023 he is the director of the Federal ex situ Genebank of Germany. 

After completing his M.Sc. and Ph.D. in plant breeding at the University of Hohenheim in Stuttgart, Germany, Andres Gordillo worked in the Breeding Technology Team for maize at the company AgReliant Genetics in the United States between 2008 and 2012. During this time, Andres Gordillo worked intensively on the design of breeding schemes to apply and validate genomic selection. Since 2013, Andres Gordillo is a Rye Breeder at KWS LOCHOW in Germany. Between 2013 and 2016, Andres Gordillo focused on the development of hybrids for new markets in Russia and North America as well as the establishment of genomic selection in the KWS rye breeding program. Since 2017, Andres Gordillo is Head of Rye Breeding at KWS LOCHOW. 

Title: Genomic selection in hybrid rye breeding: from theory to practice. 

Heinrich Grausgruber is professor for plant breeding at BOKU University in Tulln, Austria. Besides his main focus on the exploitation of wheat genetic diversity, he also addresses some specific research issues in barley and rye. 

Title: Comin' thro' the rye