SaskBarley announces 2022/23 scholarship recipients

November 22, 2022 (Saskatoon, SK)–SaskBarley is proud to announce that Dilini Adihetty, Jonathan Beutler, and Michael Taylor have been selected as the recipients of the 2022/23 scholarship funds.

“On behalf of the board of directors, we would like to congratulate this year’s scholarship winners,” said SaskBarley chair Keith Rueve. “We created this scholarship fund to encourage and support the development of new researchers working to benefit Saskatchewan’s barley sector. These graduate students and their projects will do just that.”

Each year, SaskBarley offers scholarships as an investment in promising university students who are carrying out research focused on barley. The 2022/23 scholarship awards were one $6,000 scholarship and two $4,000 scholarships.

The recipient of the $6,000 award was Dilini Adihetty, a Ph.D. graduate student and research assistant with the University of Alberta’s Department of Agricultural, Food and Nutritional Science. Adihetty’s research is focused on managing the negative effects of spot blotch in western Canadian barley to allow for more effective targeting of the disease in the long-term.

The $4,000 awards were given to Michael Taylor (M.Sc. Candidate in Plant Science at the University of Saskatchewan) and Jonathan Beutler (Ph.D. Student with the Faculty of Land and Food Systems at the University of British Columbia).

Taylor’s research is focused on the mitigation of lodging in barley through an examination of root system imaging and field data collection. Beutler’s project is helping barley breeders develop net blotch resistant pre-breeding germplasm and will ultimately lead to the development of resistant varieties for Canadian growers. 

“We consider our scholarships as an investment in the future of Canadian barley,” added Rueve. “SaskBarley supports student scholarships annually and information for next year’s applications process will be available soon on SaskBarley.com.”

Established in 2013, the purpose of the Saskatchewan Barley Development Commission (SaskBarley) is to increase the production and value of barley for both the producer and consumer. SaskBarley is led by a producer-elected Board of Directors from across Saskatchewan.

For more information, contact:

Cole Christensen
Communications Manager
P: 403-589-3529
E: cole@saskbarley.com