I would like to inform you, recently the Canadian Society of Agronomy named Dr Tarlok Singh Sahota, 2018 CSA Fellow. He is the first Canadian of India Origin as well as the first Sikh to win this prestigious award!
Dr. Tarlok Singh Sahota is currently employed as director of the Lakehead University Agricultural Research Station. The award goes to someone who has been a member of CSA for at least 10 years and has made a significant contribution in the field of agronomy. Candidates are nominated by another society member and must have at least three letters of support in favour of the nomination.
Dr. Sahota was nominated by Agriculture and Agri-food Canada researcher Dr. Yousef Papadopoulos and support from Dr. Tom Bruulsema, Dr. Shabtai Bittman, and Dr. Rigas Karamanos. He holds a PhD in agronomy from Punjab Agricultural University (PAU) in Ludhiana, India and has held a number of research and industry positions in Canada, India, and Nigeria.
Dr. Sahota led the Canadian Society of Agronomy (CSA) in various capacities and provided great leadership to the CSA during his presidency in 2015-16. He diversified the CSA and successfully conducted CSA annual conferences, most notable at Montreal in 2016. Along with being a member of CSA, Sahota is also a member of the American Society of Agronomy, the Ontario Certified Crops Advisors, the Ontario Soil and Crop Improvement Association and holds life member positions in the Indian Society of Agronomy, the Indian Society of Soil Science, and the Indian Potato Association.
He was nominated for the CCA Award of Excellence in 2017.
Dr. Sahota has published around 560 articles including 47 peer-reviewed research papers as well as 85 conference presentation and 227 extension papers. He also delivered plenary speeches and keynote lectures at International conferences in 2017 and 2018.
His nomination noted his significant contributions to Ontario agronomy, including introducing new high-yielding and crop varieties, such as the alfalfa alternative Galega, evaluating macro and micronutrient strategies, tillage systems and rotations, and conducting annual yield and performance evaluations of a wide range of crops.
The nomination also noted that, based on his work on winter wheat, Agricorp included this crop for crop insurance in Northwestern Ontario.
In his letter of support, Dr. Bruulsema noted that “Dr. Sahota has provided strong leadership to the Thunder Bay Agricultural Research Station and has earned the respect and trust of local farmers through the dissemination of relevant agronomic information from the research trials he has managed… Without his dedicated efforts, this research would not have happened, as the research station was on the verge of closing several times.”
I feel this news will be inspiring for our Sikh Community. The photo (header pic) is of Dr. Sahota with Past President of CSA (Prof. Alireza Navabi).
Kind Regards
Jaswinder
Jaswinder Singh, Ph.D.
Associate Professor
President, The Canadian Society of Agronomy (http://agronomycanada.com/)
Plant Science Department (R2-021a)
McGill University, Macdonald Campus
E-mail: [email protected]
http://www.mcgill.ca/plant/faculty/singh/