Karen Haugen-Kozyra president of Viresco Solutions Inc. was presented the 2025 ASTech Award for Agriculture and Agri-Food celebrated at the November 7, 2025 Gala in Calgary. Viresco Solutions Inc. won this award for their work on “Agri-Carbon Innovator Driving Sustainable Farming and Market Impact”. The award was presented by Bob Schulz, Professor, University of Calgary. See Karen at the Gala in the photo below. Join us in wishing a big congratulations to the Viresco Solutions Inc. team.
When they are not busy winning awards, Viresco Solutions Inc. is collaborating with Livestock Gentec in preparing a draft carbon offset protocol for cow-calf operations using genomic tools for the NSERC Alliance grant funded project “Reducing Greenhouse Gas Emissions from the Canadian Beef Industry through the Development and Adoption of Genomic Tools”. We are grateful for their expertise in leading us through this highly technical process. Specifically, Karen Haugen-Kozyra has very relevant experience in protocol development in Alberta through her involvement in developing the Fed cattle carbon offset protocol in the Alberta Offset system and Selecting for Low Residual Feed Intake in Beef Cattle protocol – both recognized protocols in the federal Offset System. This previous experience gives us a huge advantage in avoiding pitfalls in the process. As recognized experts in this area, they are also a major help in contacting and pulling together the internationally recognized experts for the advisory committee for review of the scientific discussion document. They have been a huge asset to the project team and it is exciting to see their efforts recognized.
These were the 36th annual ASTech awards. ASTech or Alberta Science and Technology Leadership Foundation recognizes outstanding achievement in science or technology in Alberta since 1990. There were 20 award categories for 2025. Among these other categories, Dr. David Wishart, University of Alberta colleague and Gentec collaborator was the winner of the 2025 ASTech AI / ML & Quantum Award. We are very supportive of efforts to recognize excellence in science and technology in Alberta. We congratulate all the winners, and here is to another year of innovation in Alberta.
