Senay Simsek has been awarded the NC-213 U.S. Quality Grains Research Consortium 2020 Andersons Cereals and Oilseeds Award of Excellence. Simsek is the North Dakota State University Bert D’Appolonia Cereal Science and Technology of Wheat Endowed Professor and has been with NDSU since 2007. She leads the hard red spring wheat end quality project in the Department of Plant Sciences.
The NC-213 U.S. Quality Grains Research Consortium is a multi-state group of researchers from U.S. land grant universities and government research centers who conduct research and share information needed to manage quality food safety and biosecurity in grain worldwide. The group meets yearly, however, due to the coronavirus, the 2020 meeting has been canceled. Simsek will be honored for her award at the 2021 annual meeting.
The NC-213 Awards Committee confers the Andersons Cereals and Oilseeds Award of Excellence yearly to individuals “who have made superior contributions to science and/or education related to cereals and oilseeds.” They commended Simsek for “innovative and forward-moving research with practical, value-adding impacts for U.S. wheat producers, marketers, and processors.” They noted that she has “emerged as a nationally and internationally recognized research and education leader.”
Simsek was also awarded the Andersons Early-in-Career Award in 2011, the first year the award was given.