Dr. Curtis Pozniak

Dr. Curtis Pozniak is a Professor and Wheat Breeder at the University of Saskatchewan’s Crop Development Centre and has been a faculty member since 2003.  He earned a Bachelor of Science in Agriculture (BSA) in 1999 and a PhD in plant genetics and breeding in 2002 from the University of Saskatchewan. 

He is the lead scientist responsible for the durum and high yielding spring wheat breeding programs. His main responsibilities (80%) are as a durum wheat breeder responsible for a large breeding program aimed at the development of field-ready cultivars. His breeding program is fully integrated with his research program, and provides the germplasm for detailed genetic and phenotypic studies. Curtis has significant large project management experience including two Genome Canada funded projects: “Canadian Triticum Advancement through Genomics (2011-2015) and “Canadian Triticum Applied Genomics” (2015-2019). 

He and his team have developed 12 wheat varieties since 2004 and have published over 70 manuscripts, including two publications in Science.  He is a world-leader in the application of next-generation genomic technology to wheat breeding and in 2010 was named the Outstanding Young Researcher at the University of Saskatchewan and was bestowed the honor of Outstanding Young Agronomist by the Canadian Society of Agronomy.