Michael Gore – Professor
Michael Gore is a professor of molecular breeding and genetics for nutritional quality and Liberty Hyde Bailey professor at Cornell University, where he is a member of the faculty in the Plant Breeding and Genetics Section in the School of Integrative Plant Science. Michael is also a faculty fellow in the Atkinson Center for a Sustainable Future and Cornell Institute for Food Systems. He holds a BS and MS from Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Virginia, and a PhD from Cornell University. Before joining the faculty at Cornell, he worked as a Research Geneticist with the USDA-ARS at the Arid-Land Agricultural Research Center in Maricopa, Arizona. His expertise is in the field of quantitative genetics and genomics, especially the genetic dissection of metabolic seed traits related to nutritional quality. He also develops and applies field-based, high-throughput phenotyping tools for plant breeding and genetics research. Michael teaches PLBRG 4070 – Nutritional Quality Improvement of Food Crops and PLBRG 4110 – High-Throughput Plant Phenotyping. He also teaches two short courses at the Tucson Plant Breeding Institute in Tucson, Arizona and other international locations, serves on the editorial boards of The Plant Phenome Journal, Genetics, and Plant Breeding and Biotechnology, and served as the Chair for the Plant Breeding Coordinating Committee (SCC080)―the USDA-sponsored advisory group of representatives from land grant universities.
Harel Bacher – Postdoctoral researcher
Academic interests:
- Improve genetic dissection and prediction for leaf cuticular conductance in maize
- Multi-omics data analysis
- Quantitative genetics
- Structural equation models
- Plant physiology and crop modeling
Education:
- Ph.D. in Wheat physiology and genetics, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem (2022)
Xiaowei Li – Postdoctoral researcher
Academic interests:
- Studying the natural variation of maize grain vitamins using statistical genomics and molecular biology
- QTL mapping, GWAS, and TWAS
- Gene cloning
- functional study using CRISPR/Cas9 and RNA-Seq
Education:
- Ph.D. in Maize Quantitative Genetics and Genomics, China Agricultural University (2018)
Nicolas Morales – Postdoctoral researcher
Academic interests:
- Remote Sensing and Aerial Imaging
- Databases and Web Services
- Quantitative Genetics
- Statistics and Neural Network Models
Experience:
- Web Database Programmer at the Boyce Thompson Institute from 2015 to 2018
Marjorie Hanneman (she/her) – Graduate student
Academic interests:
- Utilizing quantitative genetics to understand phenotypic variation of vitamin B3 in maize grain
- Connecting maize genetics to the soil rhizosphere microbial community
- Improving sorghum grain quality for semolina production in Haiti
- Global food security and incorporating social sciences into plant breeding
Education:
- BS in Agronomy and Genetics from Iowa State University (2021)
Savanah Dale – Graduate student
Academic interests:
- Improvement of underutilized and vegetable crops through functional and quantitative genetics approaches
- Increasing the rate of genetic gain for sweetcorn fresh kernel nutritional quality through integration of speed breeding and quantitative genetics
- Understanding the effect of specialized metabolites on plant-herbivore interactions in groundcherry by utilizing CRISPR editing, bioassays, and metabolomics approaches
Erin Farmer – Graduate student
Academic interests:
- Remote sensing, including aerial imagery and lidar
- Statistics and machine learning
- International agriculture
- Equitable and inclusive crop improvement
- High-throughput phenotyping
Education:
- BS in Mathematics and Physics and BA in Economics from the University of Arkansas (2019)
- MSc in Local Economic Development from the London School of Economics and Political Science (2020)
Sam Herr – Graduate student
Academic Interests:
- Biological Nitrification Inhibition
- Biofortification of Vitamin E in Maize
- Quantitative Genetics and Genomics
- Bioinformatics and Machine Learning
Education:
- BS in Biology/Mathematics from Western Washington University (2022)
Liam Wickes-Do – Lab technician
Interests and expertise:
- High-throughput phenotyping
- Local adaptation in maize