JUNE 2019 SEEDWORLD.COM / 29 AVI KALER Avi Kaler likes to say that he’s a plant doctor. When growing up in Punjab, India, Kaler wanted to be a doctor. After learning more about crops and how they grow, he decided to focus on becoming a plant scientist by getting his Master of Science in Agronomy. He later moved to the University of Arkansas to pursue his PhD in Crop Science with a focus on quantitative genetics, big data analytics, data mining. Now, as an adjunct assistant professor at the University of Arkansas, Kaler looks to improve soybean for yield and abiotic stresses by using his background in soybean genomics. In his research, he’s working on developing a tool to help other breeders select and find any soybean trait that they would like to work with. To him, plant breeding is like a puzzle, where he’s been trying to find all the correct pieces (favorable alleles) to solve how to create high yielding and drought- tolerant varieties. He also works with Benson Hill Biosystems as a computa- tional biologist. BEN PICKERING Ben Pickering’s interest in agriculture developed when he started detasseling at age 13. He followed that passion. Now, he is lead agronomist at AgReliant Genetics’ Ogden, Iowa production facility. Pickering’s favorite part about working in production is seeing the whole process: from planting the seed, detasseling it, harvesting it and bagging it. His recommendation for people work- ing as close with growers as he does? Learn your audience. Adjust on the fly for each grower and keep moving forward. In the future, Pickering is looking forward to seeing how the seed industry adapts to a challenging political climate, and how regulatory barriers will determine how seed companies support farmers. After watching decisions made around the world that could hinder innovation, Pickering is excited to see who will come up with the next big innovative idea. CLAIRE LUBY Claire Luby is a plant scientist who focuses on seed systems to address challenges ranging from Indigenous food sovereignty to plant resilience in the face of climate change. Her research seeks to enable more diverse peoples to work with more kinds of seeds in more places using plant breeding to uniquely diversify agricultural systems through local adap- tation of seeds to different environmental contexts. Her PhD research examined the effect of intellectual property rights (IP) on plant breeders’ and farmers’ freedom to use carrots for various purposes. While this project focused on carrots specifi- cally, the broader goal was to develop a robust model for open source seeds and plant breeding. To mobilize the knowledge generated from this research, Claire was a found- ing member of the Open Source Seed Initiative (OSSI), an international organiza- tion devoted to maintaining fair and open access to seeds to ensure that people can maintain the freedom to adapt seeds to their own environmental and cultural needs. Since OSSI’s founding in 2014, 40 plant breeders have released nearly 500 varieties of OSSI seeds sold by 62 seed companies in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom and Australia, and OSSI has served as a model for sister organizations around the world. COREY BECK Corey Beck’s seed industry roots run deep — his grandfather and father lead Beck’s Hybrids, and Beck says it’s been exciting to see the company grow as he’s grown up. After graduating from Purdue University, Beck didn’t immediately return home to the family business. Instead, he worked as a graduate assistant foot- ball coach at Duke University. While he enjoyed many aspects of coaching, it became clear that what he valued most was being present and connected to the family. Since returning to the family business, Beck started as seed enhancements lead, managing the seed treatment area within the company. He has since moved to the finance department as a business analyst. The best part about the job? He gets to work with all the departments the company has to offer. Business analyst can mean a lot of things, but in Beck’s role, it means quality control and process improvement to make sure that part- ners and the company as a whole have the right information at all times. From these different jobs, Beck has learned the importance of establishing the right culture and ensuring your team is headed in the right direction.