Advancing Agricultural Genome to Phenome Research (AAAI-22 Invited Talk)

Presenters

Patrick S. Schnable (Iowa State University)

Red Plenary Room, Blue Plenary Room
Abstract: Our goal is to develop statistical models that will predict crop performance in diverse environments. Crop phenotypes such as yield and drought tolerance are controlled by genotype, environment and their interactions. The necessary volumes of phenotypic data, however, remain limiting and our understanding of the interaction between genotypes and environments is limited. To address this limitation, we are building new sensors and robots to automatically collect large volumes of phenotypic data.
Bio
Pat Schnable is a distinguished professor at Iowa State University where he holds an endowed chair and directs the Plant Sciences Institute that is fostering collaborations among plant scientists, engineers, and data scientists. Schnable received his BS in Agronomy from Cornell University and his PhD in Plant Breeding and Cytogenetics from Iowa State University; he conducted post-doctoral research in Molecular Genetics at the Max Planck Institute in Köln, Germany.

Schnable’s wide-ranging investigations of the maize genome have resulted in over 200 peer-reviewed publications, an h-index of 77, and over 24,000 citations. He is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, co-lead of the Genomes to Fields Initiative, the PI of the Agricultural Genomes to Phenomes Initiative (AG2PI), a past chair of the American Society of Plant Biology’s Science Policy Committee, and a past chair of the Maize Genetics Executive Committee.

Schnable is also a serial entrepreneur and serves on the scientific advisory boards of several ag-tech companies.