Marcia Soares Chaves

Dr. Márcia Soares Chaves is agronomist and holds a PhD in Plant Sciences from Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. Her scientific interests are targeted to the sustainable intensification of crop production aiming to build more resilient agricultural systems and at the same time to keep pace with the growing demand for food. Dr. Chaves has been acting in the interface of plant breeding, biotechnology, and plant pathology in wheat and rice, in a scenario where the nexus among food systems, nutrition and health is a major driver. Since 2002 she has been working as a Research Scientist at Embrapa, the Brazilian Corporation of Agricultural Research. From 2002 to 2016 she led both basic and applied research on genetics, resistance and epidemiology of wheat rusts at Embrapa Wheat; being an active member of the Borlaug Global Rust Initiative Consortium (https://bgri.cornell.edu/). Since July, 2016 she is serving the Embrapa Temperate Agriculture research center and applying her skills for the improvement of crop systems of lowlands in temperate regions. Dr. Márcia Chaves participated in 31 research projects, being the Principal Investigator in 14 of them. Currently, she is leading a national research project aiming to integrate the CRISPR-Cas9 genome editing system into the traditional breeding methods in lowland rice. With strong involvement and experience in international networking and multidisciplinary team building, her work has connections around the world.

graduation at Engenharia Agronômica from Universidade Federal de Pelotas (1992), master's at Agronomy from Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul (1995) and doctorate at Agronomy from Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul (2001). Has experience in Agronomy, focusing on Phytopathology, acting on the following subjects: resistência, melhoramento genético, aveia, ferrugem and triticum aestivum.