Felicity Atkin Email & Phone Number

Meringa Via Gordonvale, Queensland, Australia

Variety Development Manager for the Northern region and the SRA Cross Pollination Program. I commenced as the Northern-Herbert Plant Breeder in April 2010 as part of BSES' succession plan while I continued my PhD in Quantitative Genetics which I completed in November 2012. Since my appointment as Variety Development Manager, my responsibilities include: * Promoting new SRA varieties through SRA Publications (Variety Guides and Variety Information Sheets), grower shed meetings, local media including newspaper articles and radio/television interviews;* Hosting domestic and international politicians/growers/millers/scientists/students visiting Meringa's breeding facilities;* Managing a dedicated team of 9 Plant Breeding and Field Operations staff;* Managing SRA’s early-stage trials for both the Northern & Herbert Variety Development Programs, including parent and cross selections;* Managing SRA’s final-stage trials to identify elite clones for commercial release of sugarcane varieties to the Wet Tropics and Tableland regions, from Tully to Mossman and Mareeba in Far North Queensland, Australia;* Managing SRA’s Cross-Pollination Program for the whole Australian sugar industry using flowers from field or natural floral induction and photoperiod induction using climate-controlled growth chambers;* Managing and maintaining the SRA Germplasm Collection including the SRA stored seed (produced from 1988 to current) and of over 2,500 accessions comprising: basic germplasm, introgression germplasm, Australian commercial varieties, international commercial varieties, experimental and proven parents;* Assisting SRA Biometricians with routine field trial designs and data analyses of plant breeding trials, when needed, including generating BVs for parent management and cross-pollination activities using BLUP methodology in ASReml to estimate the additive genetic variance of each parent;* Assisting with Plant Breeders Rights descriptions, when needed.

Brisbane, Australia

I relocated to Brisbane after being awarded an SRDC Scholarship in February 2007, allowing me to focus on my PhD while still working for BSES. My responsibilities at BSES while completing my PhD included:* Analysing sugarcane family trials across four selection programs using BLUP methodology to obtain better estimates of BVs of parents for cross-pollination (focus of my PhD thesis), and GVs of full-sib families to select individuals for further testing using between and within-family selection;* Assisting the BSES Biometrician in all aspects of trial design and data analysis;* Co-ordinating and maintaining all operations for BSES sugarcane family trials in SPIDNet;* Liaising with all BSES Plant Breeders to discuss what impact my new method of analyses will have on crossing and parent management in the BSES Breeding Program, and to enhance my skills in plant breeding and quantitative genetics; * Presenting research updates to industry stakeholders and peers at BSES Plant Breeding annual review meetings, and papers at relevant conferences, such as Australian Society of Sugar Cane Technologists and International Society of Sugar Cane Technologists Plant Breeding workshops.My responsibilities also included Acting-Sugarcane Breeder for the Southern Selection Program (3 months during 2008-2009):* All photoperiod cross-pollination activities in Bundaberg: parent census, pollen tests, selecting best bi-parental cross-combinations, making crosses, automatic capture of crossing activities in SPIDNet database using PDAs;* Managing Southern Plant Breeding team; * Selecting best bi-parental cross-combinations for the Southern selection program during field cross-pollination activities at BSES' main crossing station, Meringa;* Participate in all aspects of field cross-pollination in Meringa, including: parent census, pollen tests, field collection of flowers, making bi-parental crosses, automatic capture of cross-pollination activities in database using PDAs.

Bundaberg, Australia

I was appointed as Variety Officer (Sugarcane Research Technician) for the Southern Selection Program, which trialled and released new, more productive, sugarcane varieties to the Southern cane growing region (from Bundaberg to Rocky Point near Beenleigh, Queensland, Australia). As a Variety Officer, my responsibilities included:* Providing quality data from advanced stage multi-environment trials for analysis by the BSES Biometrician (through: good site selection, trial design and trial establishment; proper sampling and harvesting techniques; accurate data collection and collation, and data validation); * Maintaining quality control standards for all unreleased varieties in the Southern region (application forms and guidelines completed when transferring clones to third parties; leaf sampling for DNA fingerprinting; preparation of documents for final Government approval for the release of a new commercial variety);* Co-ordinating and maintaining all operations for our final selection stage in SPIDNet (Sugarcane Plant Improvement Database) (SPIDNet is responsible for collection, validation, storage and reporting of both raw and analysed trial data from all selection stages; also includes all cross pollination activities, pathology trials, quarantine, pedigree information, domestic and international transfers of clones);* Promoting new BSES varieties (liaise with and present trial results to co-operators, Industry personnel and growers at field days and shed meetings; prepare and distribute Variety Release Sheets and Variety Guides; promote new varieties through local media including newspaper articles and radio/television interviews).

Brisbane, Australia

Brisbane, Australia

Field Research Assistant to Dr Bernie Cooke in School of Life Sciences.

Brisbane, Australia

Tutored High School Senior Biological Sciences.

Doctor Of Philosophy (Ph.D.), Plant Breeding And Quantitative Genetics (School Of Land Crop And Food Sciences)

Thesis title: "Using family data to maximise genetic gain from parent selection in a sugarcane breeding program."

Bachelor’S Degree, Ecology (Hons) (School Of Life Science)

Awarded Bachelor or Applied Science (Hons) Thesis title: "Canopy light microclimate and its effects on fruit maturation in Macadamia.

Bachelor’S Degree, Ecology (School Of Life Science)

Awarded Bachelor of Applied Science: Major in Population Biology/Ecology, Co-Major in Biodiversity.

High School, High School Certificate

(Grade 10 to Grade 12)

High School

(Grade 7 to Grade 9)