Dr. Bob Bors is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Plant Sciences at the University of Saskatchewan, where he heads the Fruit Program and the Prairie Fruit Genebank. In addition to teaching, Dr Bors’ research is focussed on breeding hardy fruits for northern conditions with an emphasis on crops that can be mechanically harvested and need little or no pesticides. The Fruit Program has 40 acres of fruit under cultivation and is the coldest location in North America for a major fruit breeding program. Founded by Dr. C. F. Patterson, the program has been developing cold-hardy fruit varieties for nearly 100 years. Dr. Bors is renowned for his breeding work with haskaps and dwarf sour cherries which has shaped the fruit growing industry in Canada. Always keen to support the industry, he conducts annual workshops and has written two fruit production manuals with growers in mind and co-authored with Sara Williams a book for gardeners “Growing Fruit In Northern Gardens”. In 2019 he won the prestigious Stevenson Award for development of sour cherries and Haskap.
Dr. Bors tells an interesting story about his choices for the breeding program: “The first boss I had after getting my undergraduate degree, gave up breeding strawberries and continued breeding only raspberries. He used to say: “Why should I be one of the top 100 strawberry breeders in the world when I can be one of the top 10 raspberry breeders?” When I came to Saskatchewan, I was on the lookout for crops that I could be one of the top 10. Both sour cherries and haskap fit that bill.” Home gardeners and commercial growers alike have benefitted enormously from his choices.