For the first time, the 2020 WiT Awards introduced a new category to celebrate women who are working in Queensland’s regional, rural and remote locations.

One of the first winners was Dr Jodi Neal, from Golden Beach, who was the project Lead for the National Strawberry Varietal Improvement Program, within the Queensland Government’s Department of Agriculture and Fisheries, Australia’s largest public horticultural breeding program.

In her work, Dr Neal has used cutting-edge scientific approaches to influence the breeding cycle of strawberries to produce advanced varieties.

Her vision for a forward-looking strawberry breeding program aims to tackle the most prominent issues impacting Australia, such as food security, climate change, increasing population, and competition for land use, which will inevitably affect the future of farming.

@October 2020