James Schnable

James Schnable

Professor

Research areas: Plant Genomics Phenomics Quantitative Genetics Maize Sorghum

Prof. James Schnable is the Nebraska Corn Checkoff Presidential Chair at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. His research group focuses on integrating new technologies and capabilities from engineering, computer science, and statistics into maize and sorghum genetic and genomic research.

In 2022, James was a visiting researcher at X (Google’s moonshot lab), where he worked on improving genotype-to-phenotype modeling and gene discovery—research that contributed to the spin-out Heritable Agriculture. He is a Fellow of the PhenoRob Cluster of Excellence and received The Plant Journal’s Outstanding Original Research Article award in 2024. As an assistant professor, he received the Marcus Rhoades Early Career Award (2018) and concurrent Early Career Awards from NAPPN and ASPB (2019).

James has founded three companies: Data2Bio (focused on genotyping and breeding decision support), Dryland Genetics (breeding naturally water use efficient crops), and EnGeniousAg (low cost nondestructive nutrient and water sensors for farmers), which was acquired by CropX in 2024. He serves as a consultant or advisor to the scientific advisory boards of a number of larger companies in the agricultural and genomics sectors.

James holds a BA in Biology from Cornell University (2008) and a PhD in Plant Biology from UC-Berkeley (2012). From 2013 to 2014 he was an NSF Plant Genome Fellowship-supported postdoctoral scholar at the Danforth Center in St. Louis and the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences in Beijing, China.

In the News

  • 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).
  • 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.
  • 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.
  • Baker Plant Breeding Symposium talk
    Dr. James Schnable presented on scaling trait discovery at the Baker Plant Breeding Symposium.

Recent Publications