Dan is InterGrain’s Senior wheat breeder. Having joined the team in 2010, he has contributed to the release of ten wheat varieties (RockStar, Devil, Vixen, Kinsei, Sheriff CL Plus, Ninja, Chief CL Plus, Zen, Supreme and Impress CL Plus). He specialises in developing yield stability in marginal environments, udon noodle quality and market development, cereal chemistry and new wheat product opportunities.
He leads the development of varieties with superior yield potential and stability for Australia and a global leading udon noodle breeding program. Emphasis is placed on developing and maintaining durable resistance to yellow leaf spot, septoria and the three rusts and improvements in functional end-product quality. To achieve this combination of targets the program has integrated a quantum leap in the availability of molecular marker technologies and selection approaches through its research linkages, along with the latest in physiological approaches and agronomic assessment. He maintains a position at the University of Western Australia and as an editor of Agronomy journal.
Dr Mullan is responsible for joint oversight of the company’s wheat pre-breeding, phenomics and marker research collaborations, pathology research and development and germplasm introductions and evaluation. Dan continues to develop a close working relationship with technicians, researchers, breeders and management groups across Australia and the global plant breeding community.
Prior to joining InterGrain, Dan worked at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), based in Mexico. During his time (2008 – 2010) at the institute he focused on wheat physiology and was the lead investigator in a GCP funded project targeting the genetic dissection of drought and heat adaptive mechanisms in bread and durum wheat. Previous to this, he completed a post-doctoral fellowship at CSIRO, Canberra, where he was the durum pre-breeder (2006 – 2008). In his role, he focused on the integration of drought tolerance traits into locally adapted germplasm. Dan has a Bachelor of Agricultural Science (1st class Hons) and a PhD in molecular genetics and plant breeding from the University of Western Australia.