Director of the Raymon F. Baker Center for Plant Breeding

Iowa State University

Jianming Yu is Professor and Pioneer Distinguished Chair in Maize Breeding in the Department of Agronomy at Iowa State University. He has been the Director of Raymond F. Baker Center for Plant Breeding since August 2023. He earned his B.S. from Northwest A&F University in 1994, M.S. from Kansas State University in 2000, and Ph.D. from University of Minnesota in 2003. He completed a one-year postdoc at University of Minnesota and another two-year term at Cornell University. He worked at Kansas State University from 2006 to 2012 and has been at Iowa State University since 2013. Most of his research investigates the genetic architecture of quantitative and qualitative traits with evolutionary and agricultural importance, the interplay of genes, environment, and development underlying phenotypic variation, and the strategies to enhance crop improvement by design optimization and prediction. He has made many significant contributions in research discoveries and community leadership and service. Among other awards and honors, Yu was elected to Fellow of Crop Science Society of America and Fellow of American Association for the Advancement of Science in 2018. In addition, he was the inaugural recipient of the University of Minnesota Emerging Leader in Applied Plant Sciences Award in 2014. One thing that Yu has been promoting to students, colleagues, and friends is to place regular exercise as a top priority. He runs and lifts weights and has been able to maintain increased exercise frequency and intensity since May 2020. He enjoys teaching Advanced Plant Breeding, class time as “happy hour”.

Assistant Professor 

Boyce Thompson Institute

Magdalena Julkowska is an Assistant Professor at the Boyce Thompsom Institute studying abiotic stress in plants. After gaining her Bachelor's in General biology, she pursued a Master's in Green Lifesciences, exploring signaling pathways in plants. She later earned a Ph.D. at the University of Amsterdam focused on understanding how salt stress affects root architecture.

Dr. Julkowska specialized in salt stress's impact on plants, during her post-doc at KAUST, Saudi Arabia, where they delved into the molecular mechanisms of root development. Her passion for analyzing large datasets led them to develop MVApp, a user-friendly tool for data analysis and visualization.

Currently, Dr. Julkowska leads research into genetic factors affecting root architecture and responses to drought stress in legume species. She also spearheads the development of Boyce Thompson Institute's phenotyping facility and contribute to journals like The Plant Journal. Outside academia, she enjoys long walks with her dog, reading, painting, hiking, cooking, and indulging in reality TV.

Dr. Magdalena balances their research, mentorship, editorial duties, and commitment to diversity initiatives, striving to advance scientific knowledge while fostering inclusivity and excellence.

Senior Scientist

NASA Kennedy Space Center

Elison Blancaflor is currently a Portfolio Scientist at the NASA-Kennedy Space Center (KSC). As Portfolio Scientist, Elison oversees grants awarded by the NASA Science Mission Directorate (SMD)-Biological and Physical Sciences (BPS) Division to external Principal Investigators (PIs). He is also involved in strategic and tactical planning of NASA-KSC’s Space Plant Biology and Crop Production initiatives. Prior to joining KSC in 2022, Elison was Professor at the Noble Research Institute in Ardmore, Oklahoma for almost 22 years. There, he directed a research laboratory that focused on the application of live cell microscopy, genetics, and multi-omics to gain insights into molecular mechanisms by which plants grow and develop, and respond to their environment, including how they respond to stresses encountered in space. He received the American Society for Gravitational and Space Research (ASGSR) Thora W. Halstead Young Investigator Award in 2005. Elison obtained a B.S. Agriculture degree from the University of the Philippines at Los Banos in 1985, and M.S. (1993) and Ph.D. (1996) from the University of Louisiana, Lafayette. He was a postdoctoral fellow at the Pennsylvania State University from 1996-1999 before joining the Noble Research Institute. Elison was PI on several federal grants from NSF, DOE, and NASA. Before coming to the USA for graduate studies, Elison worked for the Del Monte Corporation in the Philippines for three years, where he supervised various pineapple planting and harvesting operations. Outside work, Elison enjoys music (he plays the keyboards and guitar), hiking, tennis, and volleyball.

Portfolio Lead at Farming Solutions and Digital group

Corteva Agriscience

Emily Ziemke (Combs) earned her Ph.D. from the Department of Agronomy and Plant Genetics at University of Minnesota in 2012. Under the guidance of Dr. Rex Bernardo, her thesis research focused on genome-wide selection to introduce exotic traits—specifically dwarfing and density tolerance—into adapted germplasm. This was achieved through multiple cycles of genome-wide selection and empirical evaluation of selection gains. Emily also explored the impact of training population design on genome-wide prediction accuracy and marker imputation prior to genome-wide selection. 

After completing her studies at the University of Minnesota, Emily joined DuPont Pioneer as a corn breeder in Mankato, MN. Over the course of 8 years, she led a corn breeding program aimed at enhancing the genetic diversity of Corteva’s product lineup. From 2018 to 2020, she served as the North American Corn Technology Lead, where she played a pivotal role in deploying and enhancing technologies such as genetic prediction and advanced phenotyping within North American corn breeding programs. In 2021, Emily transitioned to a new role in Data Science and Informatics (now Farming Solutions and Digital), serving as the Portfolio Lead for Seed Product Development. In this capacity, she oversees strategic planning, resource allocation, budgeting, project portfolio management, and communication plans for all projects aligned with Seed Product Development. 

Outside of work Emily enjoys gardening and cooking; she has a collection of over 100 cookbooks. She lives in Mankato MN with her husband, Mitch, and 3-year-old son, David.

Statistical Genetics Consultant

VSNi International

Salvador Gezan is a statistician/quantitative geneticist with more than 20 years of experience in breeding, statistical analysis and genetic improvement consulting. He currently is a Statistical Genetics Consultant at VSNi, United Kingdom. He started his career at Rothamsted Research UK as a biometrician where he worked with GenStat and ASReml. Over the last 15 years he has taught for companies and university researchers many ASReml workshops around the world.
Dr. Gezan has worked on agronomy, aquaculture, forestry, entomology, medical, biological modeling, and with many commercial breeding programs applying traditional and molecular statistical tools. His research has led to more than 130 peer review publications, and he is one of the coauthors of the textbook “Statistical Methods in Biology: Design and Analysis of Experiments and Regression”.