Bill Tracy - Professor, Interim Chair, & Director of Undergraduate Studies.
University of Wisconsin-Madison
William F. Tracy (Bill) is a professor in the Department of Plant and Agroecosys
tem Sciences at the UW-Madison. He received a B.S. and M.S. in plant and soil science from the UMass-Amherst and a Ph.D. in plant breeding from Cornell University. After a couple of brief stints in the corn breeding and biotech sectors, he joined UW-Madison in 1984 as an assistant professor.
He and his graduate students study the genetics, biochemistry, and physiology of sweet corn quality and productivity. Team sweet breeds sweet corn inbreds and hybrids that are in commercial production or used as germplasm across all areas where sweet corn is grown. Many of his students have gone on to successful careers in the commercial field and the vegetable seed industry.
Kelly Robbins - Associate Professor, School of Integrative Plant Science, Plant Breeding and Genetics Section.
Cornell University
Kelly graduate from the University of Georgia in 2007 with a PhD in animal breeding and genetics. Upon graduation Kelly moved into plant breeding and joined Dow AgroSciences where he eventually took on the role of Global Quantitative Genetics Lead. After almost 8 years in industry, Kelly took a faculty position at Cornell leading an international agriculture project and then started his own lab in 2017 as an Assistant Professor. The Robbins lab conducts research to develop and implement advanced modeling and informatics capabilities to increase understanding of complex traits and improve the efficiency of plant breeding programs. Currently the lab is focused on breeding scheme optimization, genomic selection, phenomics, informatics, and increasing understanding of genotype by environmental interactions. The Robbins lab works with multiple crops and research is conducted in collaboration with breeding programs in North America, Africa, and Asia.
William Rooney - Professor and Borlaug-Bayer Chair in the Soil & Crop Science Department at Texas A&M University.
Texas A&M University
Dr. William Rooney is a Regents Professor and the Borlaug-Bayer Chair in Crop Improvement in the Department of Soil and Crop Sciences at Texas A&M University. He earned his B.S. and M.S. degrees in Agronomy and Plant Breeding at Texas A&M University. 
His improvement program seeks to enhance the productivity and profitability of grain, forage and bioenergy sorghums. The objectives of the breeding position are to train graduate students in plant breeding, conduct research into the genetic control of important traits in grain, forage and bioenergy sorghums and develop and release sorghum germplasm for research and commercialization purposes. Traits of emphasis include disease resistance, grain quality, agronomic productivity and adaptability.
Dr. Rooney has authored over 250 refereed journal articles and has released numerous sorghum germplasm, lines and hybrids.
Lirong Xiong - Assistant Professor in the Department of Biological and Environmental Engineering
Cornell University
Dr. Lirong Xiang is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Biological and Environmental Engineering at Cornell University. She was previously an Assistant Professor in the Department of Biological and Agricultural Engineering 
at NC State University from 2022 to 2025, with affiliations in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and the NC Plant Sciences Initiative. Dr. Xiang received her Ph.D. in Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering from Iowa State University in 2022 and her B.S. in Biosystems Engineering from Zhejiang University in 2017. She currently serves as a guest editor for Computers and Electronics in Agriculture, as an associate editor for the Journal of the ASABE, and as an associate editor for The Plant Phenome Journal. Dr. Xiang’s research interests include robotics, computer vision, and machine learning, with a focus on developing innovative solutions for plant phenotyping, crop production, and agricultural system optimization.
Michelle Graham - USDA-ARS Research Geneticist
Iowa State University
Dean Podlich - Digital Seed Lead & Distinguished Laureate, Corteva Agriscience
Corteva Agriscience
Dr. Dean Podlich, a nativ
e of Australia, earned his PhD in Quantitative Genetics from the University of Queensland. Since joining Pioneer Hi-Bred (now Corteva Agriscience) located in Johnston, Iowa in 2001, he has dedicated most of his career to advancing molecular breeding and predictive analytics to optimize internal seed product development pipelines. Currently, Dean leads the team responsible for digital enablement across Corteva’s R&D seed pipelines - including breeding, biotechnology, gene editing, and regulatory affairs. The team that Dean works with spans data science, AI, software and data engineering, and lab-to-field engineering & automation. In addition, Dean has a strong passion for the history of U.S. agriculture and recently co-authored a book celebrating 100 years of Pioneer.