Francois Marais has joined North Dakota State University as a winter wheat breeder and geneticist in the Plant Sciences Department.

Marais’ responsibilities will include developing a winter wheat breeding and genetics program, as well as production research. Producers in North Dakota and Minnesota raised winter wheat on more than 600,000 acres in 2010.

He has been working as a visiting scientist and volunteer worker at the Cereal Research Centre in Winnipeg, Canada. Previous to that, he spent 25 years and held various positions at the University of Stellenbosch in South Africa.

Marais earned master’s and doctorate degrees in genetics from the University of Stellenbosch and a doctorate in cereal technology at NDSU.

NDSU Agriculture Communication