NDSU graduate student Bipin Neupane was awarded first place in the student poster competition at the third biennial Association of Nepalese Agricultural Professionals of Americas International Scientific Conference. Neupane is a master’s degree student in the Department of Plant Sciences and is advised by Francois Marais, professor and hard winter wheat breeding project leader.

Neupane, who is from Kathmandu, Nepal, presented “Characterization of d-tritipyrum lines and derivatives to identify their J^d chromosomes.” His research objective is to derive common wheat substitution lines with individual D-genome chromosomes replaced by homoeologous chromosomes from Thinopyrum distichum(Thunb.) Á. Löve (sea wheat), which imparts salt tolerance in the species. Sea wheat is native to the southern and south western coastal shores of South Africa, where it inhabits harsh, dry saline coastal dunes.

In addition, Neupane was named the Outstanding Volunteer for his work with the conference media and communication committee and took first place in the long drive contest of the NAPA golf tournament.

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