Recent Highlights
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New students join for spring 2026
Welcome, Ryleigh Kirby, Surya Krishna Sakthivel, and Hira Aslam. Hira joins us as a visiting PhD student from Pakistan who is studying the regulation of seed mineral content in maize. Surya is a rotating graduate student figuring out how to optimize maize photosynthesis using genomes of crop wild relatives. Ryleigh joined our lab as a high school student, continued as an undergrad, and is now a PhD student integrating high throughput leaf phenotyping with undergraduate science education. -
Three students receive IANR fellowships
Three students in our lab were honored as UNL graduate fellowship recipients. Congratulations to Jensina Davis (Hardin Fellow), Nikee Shrestha, and Sofiya Arora (Widaman Fellows). -
Nebraska Corn outreach
Jensina, Sofiya, and Harshita had the chance to meet with members of the Nebraska Corn Growers Association and talk about their work on lab projects related to crop breeding, optimizing nitrogen use, and using artificial intelligence to study leaf diseases in new ways. -
JonTurkus Wins the 2025 Outstanding Employee Award
Our exceptional lab manager Jonathan Turkus named the 2025 Outstanding Employee. Jon’s determination and creativity have made just a big impact not only on our lab, but on groups across the country over the past five years. Congratulations, Jon! -
TPJ Outstanding Paper Award
Vladimir Torres-Rodríguez’s 2024 paper Population-level gene expression can repeatedly link genes to functions in maize has been selected as The Plant Journal’s Outstanding Original Article award of 2024. -
UNL-Bayer Hackathon
Ryleigh Kirby, Harshita Mangal, Sofiya Arora, Jensina Davis, Hadiya Kounsar, Ozgur Altundas, Amany Gomaa, and Karla Cuéllar joined the Bayer Agriculture Data Hackathon, where Sofiya’s team won first place, Hadiya and Ryleigh’s team took second, Jensina’s team placed third, and Ozgur’s team earned the social engagement award.
Archive
### October 2025
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Ozgur Altundas wins Agronomy Elevator Pitch competition
Two short months into his time in our lab, Ozgur Altundas took home second prize at the UNL Agronomy Elevator Pitch competition. -
Wrapping up our 2026 field season
Thank you to everyone from our lab, and our collaborators in the Benson and Kim labs, who showed up on a cold Saturday morning to complete the hand harvest of our lab field for 2025. Now time to start planning 2026 fields. -
Students Presentations at the PSI Plant Science Symposium
Jensina Davis, Harshita Mangal, and Sofiya Arora each had the chance to deliver presentations at the 2025 PSI Plant Science Symposium here on campus. -
NCSU Genetics and Genomics Academy seminar
James delivers a seminar for the North Carolina State Genetics and Genomics Academy. While there, he had the chance to catch up with two of our successful lab alumni: Nate Korth (now a postdoc with Joe Gage) and Lina Lopez (now a field manager with Jim Holland).
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CSA News Highlight
Deniz İştipliler’s paper on how maize hybrid leaf spectra differ from their inbred parents featured in CSA News. -
Presentation at PSEPB in Warsaw PolandP
James Schnable was one of the keynote speakers at the 12th Conference of the Polish Society of Experimental Plant Biology. His host was Marcin Grzybowski, a former postdoc in our lab, now an assistant professor at the University of Warsaw where the conference was held. -
International Meeting on Plant Breeding talk
James Schnable delivered “From Breeder’s Eye to Silicon Eyes: New Tools for an Old Challenge” at the 9th International Meeting on Plant Breeding in Piracicaba, São Paulo, Brazil.
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High School Student Research Presentation
Ha Truyen, a summer high school researcher in our lab, presented her project on identifying genes with opposite effects on flowering time in Nebraska and Michigan at the Nebraska Summer Research Symposium. -
New graduate students join in Fall 2025
Welcome to PhD candidates Karla Cuéllar and Ozgur Altundas, and MS student Hadiya Kounsar. Karla is a returning lab member having worked with us twice as a visiting undergraduate. Ozgur is a former student of Caner Yavuz, a former lab member who now works as an assistant professor in Turkey.
July 2025
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Corteva New Frontiers symposium
Jensina Davis, Sofiya Arora, and James Schnable were invited attendees and presenters at the Corteva-organized New Frontiers symposium in Johnston, Iowa. -
Bayer Crop Science campus talk
James Schnable gave a talk at Bayer’s main Crop Science campus in St. Louis. He caught up with lab alum Chenyong Miao, now a genomic data scientist at Bayer, and briefly met Bayer CEO Bill Anderson (in passing, in an elevator) during the visit. -
Plants People Planet cover feature
Michael Tross and a paper led by Nikee Shrestha are featured on the cover of Plants, People, Planet. Read the cover write-up, which links to the paper.
June 2025
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Corteva genotyping tour and lab visit
Michael Tross, who earned his PhD in Plant Science in our lab and now works as an AI data scientist at Corteva, arranged for nearly the entire lab to drive from Lincoln to Johnston to talk science with Corteva researchers and tour their impressive high-throughput genotyping facilities. -
Sorghum TWAS Published
“Genes and pathways determining flowering time variation in temperate-adapted sorghum,” our lab’s first sorghum TWAS paper was published in TPJ. Congratulations to lead author Harshita Mangal and the whole team who made this happen.
May 2025
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Jensina wins another fellowship
Jensina Davis was selected for a Heuermann Award by the Center for Plant Science Innovation. The fellowship is awarded excellence in plant science research and potential impact on the field subsequent to graduation.
March 2025
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Deniz İştipliler returns for seminar
Dr. Deniz İştipliler, a former scientist in our lab, now a professor at Ege University in Turkey, returned to UNL as part of the Agronomy and Horticulture Seminar Series, discussing his work optimizing agricultural water use efficiency. -
ARPA-E Summit representation
Jon Turkus and Chidu Ullagaddi highlighted the lab’s ARPA-E project at the 2025 ARPA-E Summit in Washington, DC. -
Baker Plant Breeding Symposium talk
Dr. James Schnable presented on scaling trait discovery at the Baker Plant Breeding Symposium. -
Nebraska Sorghum Symposium presentation
Dr. Schnable shared the lab’s latest sorghum research at the Nebraska Sorghum Symposium in Grand Island. -
Maize Meeting Conference presence
Graduate students and postdocs presented research on yield, nitrogen responses, and cis-regulatory variation at the 2025 Maize Meeting conference. -
Nebraska Plant Science Symposium contributions
Lab members contributed to discussions on advancing plant science research at the Nebraska Plant Science Symposium.
February 2025
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Nature Genetics publication
Drs. Vladimir Torres-Rodriguez and Guangchao Sun contributed to a Nature Genetics paper. -
Jinliang Yang named Gardner Professor
Dr. Jinliang Yang was named the Charles O. Gardner Professor of Maize Quantitative Genetics.
January 2025
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New preprint on yield plasticity
The lab released “Assessing the impact of yield plasticity on hybrid performance in maize” on bioRxiv. -
PAG 2025 invited talk
Dr. James Schnable delivered an invited talk on scaling trait discovery at the PAG Conference. -
Satellite phenotyping spotlight
Nikee Shrestha’s USDA NIFA-supported project on satellite-based corn phenotyping was featured in Plant People Planet. -
Welcoming the new year
The lab rang in the new year and celebrated ongoing collaborations.
December 2024
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Celebrating a productive 2024
The lab thanked collaborators and celebrated shared successes to close out 2024.
November 2024
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Fangyi Li defends PhD
Dr. Fangyi Li defended her Complex Biosystems PhD thesis on photosynthesis and cold tolerance. -
ARPA-E Summit keynote
Prof. Schnable addressed the ARPA-E Agricultural Portfolio Summit in San Antonio, Texas. -
Precision agriculture lecture at SDSU
Prof. Schnable delivered the Distinguished Lecture in Precision Agriculture at South Dakota State University.
October 2024
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Jensina Davis advances to candidacy
Congratulations to Jensina Davis on advancing to PhD candidacy. -
PSI Retreat recognition
Lab members were recognized for their work at the 2024 PSI Retreat. -
Alumni return for PSI 2024
Dr. Sunil Kenchanmane visited PSI 2024 to celebrate alumni achievements. -
Conference doubleheader at MLCAS and IPPS8
The lab presented research at MLCAS 2024 and IPPS8 2024. -
Alumni engagement weekend
Alumni Dr. Zhikai Liang and Dr. Deniz İştipliler shared career journeys with the team. -
CSU Plant Adaptation Symposium talk
Dr. Schnable presented recent lab work at the CSU Plant Adaptation Symposium.
September 2024
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Visiting scientist joins the lab
Welcome to Dr. Caner Yavuz, visiting scientist in the Schnable Lab. -
Digital twin grant secured
The lab earned a grant to develop a digital twin of cornfields for hybrid improvement. -
Niranjan Pokhrel rotation
PhD student Niranjan Pokhrel began a Complex Biosystems rotation with the lab. -
Nebraska Corn Checkoff Presidential Chair
Dr. Schnable was named the Nebraska Corn Checkoff Presidential Chair.
August 2024
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Nikee Shrestha passes candidacy exam
Nikee Shrestha advanced to candidacy in the PhD program. -
Khang Hoang joins as visiting scientist
Welcome to Dr. Khang Hoang, visiting scientist collaborating with the lab. -
MS student Sofiya Arora joins the lab
The lab welcomed MS student Sofiya Arora.
July 2024
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Ramesh Kanna defends MSc
Congratulations to Ramesh Kanna on a successful MSc defense. -
Karla Cuéllar internship underway
Karla Cuéllar started her internship with the Schnable Lab. -
Rossy Bedolla joins as office associate
Rossy Bedolla joined the lab as the new office associate. -
Ryleigh Grove earns summer stipend
Ryleigh Grove (now Ryleigh Kirby) received support for a summer research project at UNL. -
Corn gene discovery celebration
Prof. Vladimir Torres-Rodriguez led a discovery of a new corn gene with promising applications.
June 2024
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Zhongjie Ji seminar on canopy modeling
Zhongjie Ji presented “Advanced Canopy Architecture Modeling in Maize” for the CROPS seminar series. -
Harshita Mangal hits one-year milestone
Congratulations to Harshita Mangal on one year with the lab.
May 2024
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Schnable Lab turns ten
The lab marked its tenth anniversary with the James Schnable Fest. -
UNL recognition for supporting postdocs
Dr. Schnable was honored by UNL for supporting diverse postdoctoral projects and skills. -
Hongyu Jin defends PhD
Congratulations to Dr. Hongyu Jin on a successful PhD defense. -
Michael Tross profiled on AI for agriculture
Midwest Messenger highlighted Michael Tross’s work on AI for agriculture.
April 2024
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Zhongjie Ji named Heuermann scholar
Zhongjie Ji, a graduate of our collaborator Addie Thompson’s lab at MSU, joined our lab as a UNL-PSI Heuermann postdoctoral scholar focused on plant phenotyping. -
Harshita wins two awards at NPSS
Harshita Mangal earned lightning talk and poster awards at the 2024 Corteva-Nebraska Plant Science Symposium.
March 2024
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Michael Tross defends PhD
Congratulations to Dr. Michael Tross on defending his PhD thesis. -
Hongyu Jin paper accepted
Hongyu Jin’s first-author manuscript as a lab member was accepted for publication.
February 2024
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Maize Genome Conference presentations
The lab delivered talks and posters at the maize genome conference in Raleigh, North Carolina.
January 2024
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Plant and Animal Genome 2024
Vladimir Torres, Nikee Shrestha, and Jensina Davis were each invited to present at PAG 2024 in San Diego. Great job!
Looking for earlier stories? Browse the full archive.