International Plant Breeding Seminar Series

Dr. Heilman Morales is director of the North Dakota State University Agricultural Data Analytics program and a plant breeder with extensive experience in academic and seed industry agricultural data management research. In her current role she leads a team of data scientists and software engineers in the development and implementation of innovative data management and analytic strategies for the North Dakota State University (NDSU) Agricultural Experiment Station (AES). She holds a Ph.D. in Plant Sciences from NDSU, a M.Sc. in Biological Sciences from the University of Puerto Rico at Mayaguez (UPRM), and a B.Sc. in Biology from Universidad del Valle (Univalle), Colombia.

Her goal is to support the development of automated data tools and analytical solutions to modernize the ND AES agricultural digital solutions, focusing on integrating data management practices, statistical analysis, machine learning, and data coming from remote sensing technologies.

Dr. Soraya Bertioli’s research is focused on using wild relatives of peanuts to improve and understand pest and disease resistance. Improved peanut cultivars benefit the farmer, by reducing costs, and benefit the environment, by reducing the use of inputs. The research can be divided into three stages. The first stage involves hybridizing wild diploid species and inducing chromosome doubling to generate induced allotetraploids that are sexually compatible with cultivated peanuts. These allotetraploids carry resistance to pests and diseases, including late leaf spot, rust, root-knot nematode, TSWV, stem rot, insects and spider mites. They are the first bridge to access wild alleles for peanut improvement. The second stage uses genetic analysis of segregating populations to identify genomic regions that confer disease resistance. The third stage involves marker-assisted backcrossing schemes to introgress selected chromosome segments, to produce cultivars with improved resistance.

Natalia De Leon is a professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Her research focuses on plant breeding and quantitative genetics, specifically maize improvement for productivity and resilience. She explores the interface of plant breeding, quantitative and molecular genetics, and combines different sources of genetic information such as phenotypic, genotypic, and expression data. Additionally, she conducts genetic analysis of developmental traits in maize.

Dr. Maria Andrade has spent the last 22 years working in Mozambique. For the first 10 years, she served as a regional cassava and sweetpotato agronomist for the SARRNET and led a five-year IITA/CIP project on Accelerated Multiplication and Distribution of Planting Materials of Cassava and Sweetpotato. In 2006, she joined CIP to manage the SASHA Southern Africa Sweetpotato Platform. She has released 30 bio-fortified sweetpotato varieties of which 20 are drought tolerant. Maria serves as CIP’s country manager, SASHA breeder for Southern Africa & Asia, over and above her scientific leadership role. Maria served as the vice president for fundraising for the ISTRC global for five years. She was on the board of Directors of Alliance for Green Revolution, in Africa, on the Board of Micronutrient Forum and a Member of External Panel review of NextGen Cassava. She is also a member of the high-level group of champions for the Food Forever Initiative. Key recognitions include: in 2013 she was named a Nutrition Champion by Transform Nutrition, received an appreciation award from ISTRC-AB for her outstanding leadership and contribution on RTC in Africa, outstanding Alumnus award from NCSU, 2016 World Food Prize co-laureate, 2017 Swaminathan Award for Environmental Protection,  nominated as one of the 5th Wonder Women of Agriculture by USDA, March 2018, and the 2018 Cape Verdean Woman of the Year on July 7th, 2018.

Dr. Gayle Volk is a Plant Physiologist and her research focuses on improving the management of vegetatively propagated collections in the USDA National Plant Germplasm System (NPGS) using a wide range of techniques. With the apple collection as a model system, her lab has identified and explored novel diversity, collected wild species, developed tools to identify heritage apple trees on public lands, and co-authored “A Global Strategy for the Conservation and Use of Apple Genetic Resources”. Volk’s team has developed and implemented cryopreservation methods for preserving citrus, grapes, garlic, Prunus, and other crops at the National Laboratory for Genetic Resources Preservation. In addition, she is co-coordinator of an effort to build and release public training materials relating to the conservation and use of plant genetic resources.

Dr. Jolien Swanckaert is a potato breeder at Aardevo (Nagele, Netherlands), a joint venture between KWS (Einbeck, Germany) and The J.R. Simplot Company (Idaho, US). This structure combines KWS’ expertise in seeds and hybrid plant breeding with the advanced potato processing capabilities and agronomic knowledge of Simplot. Her goal is to transform the potato genetics from a clonal crop to a hybrid crop by connecting research to practical breeding. In her role, she is developing a hybrid potato pipeline at the diploid level, tackling inbreeding depression and extensive hybrid testing in Europe. The focus is completely on creating competitive hybrid potato varieties which will provide new opportunities in the potato industry.