Celebrating surviving our first full year in 2015, nine years ago this month.

Prof. @vla_torres of @unlagrohort and @UNL_PSI presents to the Plant Science Club on opportunities for undergraduate research combining genome editing, corn genetics, and artificial intelligence.

My field manager @Chidu_ullagaddi volunteered to show local farmers our sorghum diversity plots near Lincoln this weekend. Explains that we sometimes grow “bad” lines (diseased, too short/tall, tiny heads) to understand the genetics that can lead to future better varieties.

Checking in on one of our nitrogen experiments -- part of the @NECornBoard supported Nebraska Nitrogen Initiative -- from the air. Big thank you to the great research team up at @nebenreec who host and manage this site.

Plant genetics and breeding for Nebraska, the United States, and the world.

Waqar @WaqarAli325 and Chidu @Chidu_ullagaddi working late to set up phones, sensors and experimental plans. Our goal is 4000+ photosynthetic measurements in <8 hours.

Charlie Colvin, an REEU undergraduate from @psuplantscience is identifying candidate resistance genes to fungal pathogens using population scale RNA-seq. Nine weeks ago Charlie didn't code, today we're rushing to finished the paper before PSU needs him back.

If it gets us out of digging up corn plants in the field, sign us up!

And so, that particularly crop genetic investigation came to an end.

Seems like just a few days ago the sorghum was ankle high.

Graduate student @WaqarAli325 setting up one of the first crosses of the field season in our corn genetics nursery on UNL's East Campus. Photo by @vla_torres.

It's starting! Pollinating season in our corn nursery is just a few days away at this point. (Photo by @WaqarAli325)

Whatever else the coming weeks and months bring: our corn (some of it) is planted and growing.

Field scientist @Chidu_ullagaddi rides the planter as we get the last of our 2025 Genomes to Fields hybrid corn plots in the ground out at Havelock Farm. Part of our @NECornBoard supported project. (Photo: @Kyle__Linders)

Great talk on this morning on phenomics and sustainable water use for agriculture from Prof. Deniz Istipliler of @UniversiteEge! Glad he could travel the 10,000 kilometers and 36 hours speak here in Nebraska.

Great turnout at this year's ARPA-E Energy Innovation Showcase! Good to catch up with both old friends (thanks for stopping by Prof. Kim!) and a lot of engineers, programmers and investors what corn was doing at an energy conference.

Waqar Ali (@WaqarAli325) and Caner Yavuz (@caneryz) representing our lab at the Nebraska Plant Science Symposium (photos by @NikeeShrestha2).

The Notice of Funding Opportunity from ARPA-E for plant transformation technology just came out today too: arpa-e-foa.energy.gov/#FoaId…

James Schnable telling 3 stories in 15 minutes on using better algorithms and better data to: 1) Find the right traits, from @HongyuJin5 2) Find the genes controlling those traits, from @Harshita17_ 3) Find sequences controlling expression of those genes, from @tross_michael.

AI-based recreation of a regular workday in our lab.