Loren Rieseberg appointed director of UBC Biodiversity Research Centre

Botanist Loren Rieseberg, internationally known for his research into the genomics and evolution of the sunflower, has been appointed director of UBC’s Biodiversity Research Centre.

Rieseberg is a fellow of the Royal Society and the Royal Society of Canada, has held a MacArthur Fellowship. He is currently the Canada Research Chair in Plant Evolutionary Genomics.

“UBC’s biodiversity group ranks among the world’s best, and I look forward to working with Loren to advance their innovative research in evolution, modelling, ecology, fisheries management, and conservation biology,” said Simon Peacock, Dean of Science at the University of British Columbia.

“I’d also like to thank Sally Otto for her outstanding service as director of the Biodiversity Research Centre for the past eight years. During Sally’s term our international reputation in biodiversity has grown tremendously, we’ve launched successful industry training programs in biodiversity, and increased our sequencing and bioinformatics capabilities.”

The author of over 275 articles in top scientific journals including Nature, Science and PNAS, Rieseberg's research is supported by Genome BC, Genome Canada, NSERC, the NSF and others. He has successfully mentored more than 30 graduate students and 70 postdoctoral fellows.

Rieseberg has partnered with commercial businesses and governments to provide ‘prebreeding’ intelligence for the sunflower industry – the thirteenth most-grown crop in the world and worth more than $20-billion every year in production value.