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Research Interests:

My research interests have revolved on improving the efficacy of breeding for continued genetic improvement of agriculturally important crop species. My work at the Buckler includes the integration of high-throughput phenotype data into quantitative genetics platform, modeling deleterious mutation into genomic selection framework, and statistical modelling at different levels of biological organization for dissecting genetic basis of quantitative traits in maize and sorghum. 

I received my Ph.D. at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. My graduate training at the Lorenz Lab involved on understanding the distribution of genetic variation contained within the USDA soybean collection (N~20,000 accessions) and how it relates to phenotypic variation for economically important traits. I also worked on the optimization and integration of genomic selection on the varietal development side of soybean. Prior to joining the University of Nebraska, I started my career as an Assistant Scientist at the International Rice Research Institute in the Philippines, where I was part of a team that pioneered the development of Multi-parent Advanced Generation Inter-Cross (MAGIC) populations in rice. Now I am an Assistant Professor in the Plant Sciences Department at North Dakota State University.

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Education:

•    Ph.D. in Plant Breeding and Genetics , University of Nebraska-Lincoln