M.T. Vinayan has been working with P.H. Zaidi at CIMMYT-Asia, Hyderabad, and was recently awarded the 2011 gold medal for the âBest PhD student in Plant Breeding and Geneticsâ from Tamil Nadu Agricultural University (TNAU), India. During the ceremony on 23 November 2011, Vinayan was also presented with the âDr. R. Appadurai, Dr. R Rathinasamy, and Dr. S. Kannaiyan Awardâ by the Governor of Tamil Nadu, K. Rosaiah. Vinayan conducted his thesis on âGenetic architecture of spotted stem borer resistance in sorghum as inferred from QTL mapping and synteny with the maize genomeâ under the guidance of C.T. Hash (Principal Scientist, ICRISAT) and K. Mohanasundaram (TNAU).
At the 11th Asian Maize Conference, Jewel Jameeta Noor, a CSISA PhD student, won a âBest Paperâ award for her submission on âMorpho-physiological traits associated with heat stress tolerance in tropical maize (Zea mays L.), co-authored by P.H. Zaidi, Shahid Umar, M.T. Vinayan, and Pooja Devi. Noor is currently studying at Jamia Hamdard, New Delhi, under P.H. Zaidi, Senior Maize Physiologist, Global Maize Program, CIMMYT.
Congratulations to everyone involved for all their efforts!
