My name is Mylene Corzo Lopez, I am from Cuba. I obtained both my undergraduate B.Sc. (2011) and graduate M.Sc. (2017) degrees majoring in Microbiology from the University of Havana. I worked as a Research Associate in the Plant Pathology Lab at the National Center for Animal and Plant Health (CENSA) located in Mayabeque Cuba since completing my undergraduate degree. In 2016, I had the possibility to work with Dr. K. Peter Pauls, professor in the Department of Plant Agriculture, University of Guelph under an Emerging Leaders of the Americas Program (ELAP) scholarship during the period of November 2016 to May 2017, which provided me the opportunity to gain experience on genetic and plant breeding issues. After that, in 2019, I was awarded an award from Ontario Agri-Food Innovation Alliance HQP Program which supports my PhD research project for three years. Since then, I have been working on my PhD research project under supervision of Dr. K. Peter Pauls. This project is focused on the development of bean genotypes with improved yield and enhanced disease resistance to common bacterial blight (CBB) disease. Hence, these varieties with improved resistance may create economic opportunity by allowing the development of an Ontario-based bean seed production system, in order to reduce the seed cost for Canadian bean producers. On the other hand, University of Guelph has enormous experience in bean breeding program, principally in genetic breeding, thus this is the excellent place to carry out my research project and achieve positive results that will contribute to bean breeding program. Moreover, these results would benefit Canadian farmers, producers, and the agri-food sectors towards achieving greater economic benefit and sustainability.
