People's Choice Award :

University of Vermont and the International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA) for A Decade of Cooperation on Sunn Pest Management. The Sunn Pest refers to a group of insects that inject saliva into wheat, causing an extensive breakdown of the gluten and greatly reducing the baking quality of flour made from damaged wheat. Sunn Pest is prevalent in parts of North Africa, throughout West Asia and in many states of Central Asia. This partnership developed insect-killing fungi for biological control as well as novel screening methods to identify resistance in wheat.

On stage left to right: Bruce Parker (University of Vermont), Mustafa Bohssini (ICARDA), Franklin Moore (USAID), Margaret Skinner (University of Vermont), Kathy Sierra and Ruth Haug.