2026 Texas A&M Plant Breeding Symposium
The theme for the symposium is "Multidimensional Breeding: Innovation at The Intersection of Genomics, Data Science and Biotechnology". We will highlight research on various tools developed and applied in plant breeding programs, such as genomic prediction, phenomics, crop modeling, molecular breeding, big data management and more! Join us at the 2026 Texas A&M Plant Breeding Symposium and learn about the ever-changing dynamics of plant breeding!
Keynote Speakers
Dr. Larry Smart - Cornell University
Larry Smart is a professor of Plant Breeding and Genetics in the Horticulture Section of the School of Integrative Plant Science at Cornell University and has been based at Cornell AgriTech in Geneva, NY since 2009. He is a plant geneticist working to breed improved cultivars of four crops: hemp, shrub willow, hop, and flax. His research focuses on hybrid vigor, sex determination, and pest and disease resistance and he pairs genomic analyses with field phenotyping to elucidate genotype-phenotype relationships. Smart has published over 100 peer-reviewed articles, and he holds plant patents on eight high-yielding cultivars of willow and PVPs for two hemp grain and fiber cultivars. Smart’s team has collaborated extensively with specialists in Cornell Cooperative Extension to provide science-based resources for growers and processors and his group has authored more than 70 extension publications. He has supervised 29 graduate students and dozens of undergraduates in his lab. He earned a BS in Biology from Cornell University, PhD in Genetics from Michigan State University, and was an NSF post-doctoral fellow at UC Davis.
Title: Genetic, Genomic, and Gene Editing Approaches to Understanding Resistance to Powdery Mildew in Hemp
Dr. Shelby Ellison - University of Wisconsin-Madison
Dr. Shelby Ellison is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Plant and Agroecosystem Sciences at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She earned her B.S. in Genetics from UW–Madison and her Ph.D. in Genetics from the University of California, Davis, before completing a NSF Postdoctoral Fellowship in carrot carotenoid genomics with Dr. Phil Simon. Her research program focuses on the genetics and breeding of emerging crops, with a primary emphasis on hemp. By integrating genomic and phenomic approaches, her lab characterizes genetic diversity, identifies priority traits, and develops improved cultivars for applications in fiber, oilseed, and pharmaceutical markets. Ellison’s work combines field and greenhouse research with genomic and genetic transformation tools to accelerate breeding progress and improve seed production systems in hemp. Alongside advancing fundamental knowledge of crop genetics, she is dedicated to translational outcomes that serve growers, industry partners, and public stakeholders, strengthening innovation and sustainability in alternative crop systems.
Title: From Zero to Multidimensional: Building a Hemp Research Program in the Data Science Era
Dr. James Schnable - University of Nebraska–Lincoln
Dr. James Schnable is the Nebraska Corn Checkoff Presidential Chair at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln, where he leads a research program at the intersection of quantitative genetics, genomics, and machine learning. His group focuses on improving the agronomic performance and value of crops like maize and sorghum through advanced phenotyping and gene discovery. In addition to his academic work, Dr. Schnable is a serial entrepreneur, having founded three companies in bioinformatics, climate-resilient agriculture, and precision agronomy. He has raised over $7 million in private investment and more than $20 million in public research funding from agencies including NSF, DOE, USDA, FFAR, and industry partners. He holds degrees from Cornell and UC Berkeley and completed postdoctoral training at the Danforth Center and the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences and is a past employee of X, Google’s moonshot innovation lab. His contributions have been recognized with awards from the Maize Genetics Cooperation, the North American Plant Phenotyping Network, and the American Society of Plant Biologists.
Title: The 90% Problem: Linking Plant Genes to Phenotypes at Scale
Dr. Tara Tarnowski - Corteva Agriscience
Dr. Tara Tarnowski has been a member of Corteva Agrisciences (formerly Pioneer HiBred) since 2011. Her career with the company began as a Discovery Breeding Scientist, where she played a critical role in developing and deploying innovative breeding methodologies and technologies to midwestern corn breeding programs. In this role, Dr. Tarnowski oversaw the optimization and deployment of genomic selection, ran a diversity corn breeding program, deployed forward breeding for parental traits, and developed one of the first remote sensing phenotyping traits (plant height) in North America. In 2019 she took over leadership of technology deployment in several hybrid crops (wheat, sorghum, canola), where she was responsible for incorporating new methods and technologies in each crop’s breeding strategy. Dr. Tarnowski now leads the North America Breeding Strategy and Technology Deployment team. This group of scientists collaborates across crops in North America to promote the adoption of innovative ideas and breeding methods, all aimed at accelerating genetic gain. She enjoys working on the cutting edge of plant breeding and is driven by the opportunity to collaborate with talented scientists from various disciplines to advance breeding strategy.
Title: Harnessing "omics" data for commercial plant breeding
Dr. Michael Thomson – Texas A&M University
Dr. Michael Thomson is a Professor in the Department of Soil and Crop Sciences and holder of the H. M. Beachell Rice Chair at Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas. Dr. Thomson’s research expertise is in rice genetics, with a focus on gene mapping, international agriculture, and genome editing. He obtained his PhD in Plant Breeding at Cornell University and worked for 10 years at the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) in the Philippines to map stress tolerance genes and deploy high-throughput SNP genotyping in rice. In 2015 he joined Texas A&M, where he currently co-leads the Texas A&M AgriLife Research Crop Genome Editing Lab and supervises the Multi-Crop Transformation Facility, working towards optimizing high-throughput plant transformation and CRISPR-based approaches for crop improvement.
Title: Strategies to Apply CRISPR Genome Editing Technologies for Crop Improvement