Keynote Speakers (2025)

Dr. Seth Murray – Texas A&M University

Seth Murray is a plant breeder and recognized innovator and leader in phenotyping and phenomics. His research focuses on high throughput field phenotyping using drones, quantitative genetic discovery, gene-to-phene data analytics and applied maize (corn) breeding in Texas, as well as perenniality in maize and sorghum. He has released 9 maize lines, some licensed and being grown by Texas farmers, including for whiskey. He has two provisional patents. A major focus of his program is graduate student training, chairing 34 committees and serving on another 38 committees. He has co-authored 108 peer-reviewed research articles. He has served in leadership roles for the National Association of Plant Breeders (NAPB) and the North American Plant Phenotyping Network (NAPPN) and served as the 2023 President of Crop Science Society of America (CSSA). He has received CSSA and NAPB early career research awards, is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), a fellow of CSSA, and was twice named a Blavatnik Young Life Sciences Finalist. In 2016-2017, he served as the Senior Advisor of Agricultural Systems in the Office of the Chief Scientist at USDA. He founded and served as Editor of The Plant Phenome Journal, an ASA and CSSA publication. He received his PhD from Cornell University and a BS from Michigan State University.

Title: Capturing Nature AND Nurture with Temporal Field Phenomics to Breed Better Crops

Dr. Diego Jarquin - University of Florida

Diego Jarquin is an Assistant Professor in the Agronomy Department at the University of Florida. He received his Ph.D. in Statistics from the University of Postgraduate Education in Mexico in 2012 and had postdoctoral training at the University of Alabama - Birmingham and the University of Nebraska - Lincoln. Later, he was promoted to research assistant professor and research associate professor. Diego Jarquin is a statistician that merges statistical methodology, AI, computer algorithm development, data science and collaborative work with plant sciences. He brings an active research agenda that is advancing how prediction models are developed for selection purposes in Plant Breeding. As part of his work, Diego Jarquin have established an excellent record of peer-reviewed publications on prediction model developments that contributed to producing improved cultivars in Plant Breeding (90 manuscripts and 4 book chapters for about 4,800 citations). In 2020, Diego Jarquin received the Early Career Scientist Award from the National Association of Plant Breeders, and recently received the 2024 UF/IFAS Plant Breeding Innovation Award.

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Dr. Christine Diepenbrock - UC-Davis

Christine Diepenbrock is an Assistant Professor in Plant Sciences at the University of California, Davis. She and her team are focused on improving crop nutritional quality and tolerance to drought and high temperatures in staple and specialty crops. She has also taken on the bean breeding program at UC Davis. Prior to her current position, Christine worked in the Predictive Agriculture division at Corteva Agriscience™ on the integration of crop growth modeling and genomic prediction. She conducted her Ph.D. in Plant Breeding and Genetics at Cornell University and her B.A. in Biology, with a concentration in Molecular Biology and Biochemistry, at Washington University in St. Louis.

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Dr. Jeffrey Endelman- University of Wisconsin

Jeffrey Endelman is a Professor in the Department of Plant & Agroecosystem Sciences at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He originally trained as a computational scientist before discovering his passion for agriculture and retraining as a plant breeder. Endelman specializes in the application of quantitative genetics to plant breeding and has created several R packages used by hundreds of scientists. A major theme of his research has been the development of methods for genomic analysis and selection in autotetraploid species, which he applies as director of the UW potato breeding program. Endelman is also active in the worldwide effort to create diploid, inbred lines of potato, which should improve the efficiency of variety development and genetic discovery.

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Corteva Agriscience

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