Cornell University
Moira Sheehan
Cornell PI
Moira Sheehan is the Director of Breeding Insight (BI) at Cornell University. Breeding Insight is the first large-scale public-sector effort to systematically apply genomic information to the breeding of specialty plants and animals. The project is funded by the USDA-ARS and is implementing breeding and genomic data management systems to enhance the capacity of 60 public-sector breeding programs such that they can deliver increased rates of genetic gain. The breeding, genomic, and phenotypic data management systems include databases, analytics, and decision support tools (TTMs) for breeders.
Moira has more 14 years of experience working with plant breeders to adopt new technologies, methodologies, and data analytics to enhance and hasten their breeding efforts; and an addition 12 years of research experience in many diverse aspects of plant biology and genetics. Moira is passionate about providing breeders with tools and resources to assist them in making improvements in maintaining food diversity and culturally-important foods, preparing and responding to climate change, improving nutrition and accessibility, and shoring up food-supply chains starting with public breeders of specialty crops and animals.
Craig Beil
Cornell Co-PI
Craig Beil is the Breeding Program Lead at Breeding Insight (BI) at Cornell University. In his position as at BI he leads the science team in the integration of statistical analyses from genotypic and phenotypic data to provide breeding-decision support efforts for USDA-ARS specialty crop and livestock breeders. In concert with the science and software engineering teams, this position works as part of a national initiative to extend the application of genotypic information to routine development of specialty plants and animals. One of the main aims of the science team is to accelerate breeding efforts by integrating the use of phenomics with genomics and natural variation to increase the rate of genetic gain to create healthy, nutritious, and sustainable specialty crops and animals.
Craig has proven expertise in applying genetic principles to enable the interpretation of biological phenomena and provide information that guides strategies and optimizes resources in specialty breeding programs. Craig was trained as a wheat breeder at Colorado State University and also has degrees in weed science and agronomy. He worked in industry as a papaya and castor breeder before joining BI.
AJ Ackerman
Cornell/Breeding Insight
Plant Breeding Coordinator
Arlyn (AJ) Ackerman has worked with a number of different specialty and commodity crops across a range of breeding programs. AJ has utilized his multi-crop experience to cross-cut concepts across various crops and breeding schemes dating back to his Ph.D. research at Clemson University. Growing up on a farm in the Midwest, AJ has worked in both start-up breeding companies and across various branches of Monsanto (now Bayer). Additionally, AJ has trained under breeders facing the unique challenges involved in building a breeding program from the ground up, as well as breeders implementing innovative changes in recently inherited programs. AJ’s research and interests have revolved around implementing cutting-edge technologies into modern breeding programs. These focuses include effectively integrating genomic-driven strategies into breeding pipelines, implementing modern phenotyping and AI-driven tools into breeding programs, and disruptive approaches to designing breeding trials and speed breeding schemes.