| Yiping Qi Chair (2024-2026) University of Maryland, College Park Dr. Yiping Qi is a Professor at University of Maryland, College Park. He received his PhD in Plant Biology from University of Minnesota, Twin Cities in 2009. Then, he joined Dr. Dan Voytas lab as a postdoc to develop ZFNs and TALENs for genome editing in plants. He started his own lab at East Carolina University in North Carolina in 2013 and subsequently moved to University of Maryland in 2017. His lab has developed multiple CRISPR genome engineering tools such as multiplexed CRISPR-Cas9 systems, Cas12a systems, and Cas12b systems. He is also interested in repurposing CRISPR systems for transcriptional regulation and has developed CRISPR-Act2.0, Act3.0, and CRISPR-Combo systems. These plant genome engineering tools have been widely used in the plant research community. Dr. Qi is a Web of Science Highly Cited Researcher in the past four years, since 2020. He has received multiple awards at University of Maryland, including the 2021 UMD Invention of the Year Award. |
 |
| Christopher Bagley Vice Chair (2024-2026) Inari Agriculture Chris was born and raised in rural Virginia, United States where he grew up on a small family farm raising sweet corn, strawberries, blackberries, pumpkins and beef cattle. That exposure and interest in agriculture propelled Chris to obtain his M.S. in Crop and Soil Environmental Sciences from Virginia Tech. In 2002 Chris joined BASF, RTP, NC where he was first introduced to tissue culture and its application towards developing an agricultural product. During his time at BASF, Chris primarily worked in the maize transformation team and contributed towards the development of GM traits for yield, improved livestock feed, and maize fungal resistance projects. In 2014, Chris joined Bayer Crop Science, RTP, NC as the Plant Genome Engineering Group Lead and led the transformation team to help discover and develop insecticidal and herbicide resistant GM traits in soybean. In 2019, Chris accepted the position of Sr. Director of Plant Transformation, West Lafayette, IN at Inari Agriculture and started the journey to build a transformation team in a newly opened facility. Chris and his team established transformation platforms to gene edit tomato, wheat, soybean and maize with the goal to bring sustainable positive impacts in these crops including increased yield. When not in the tissue culture lab, Chris likes to do a bit of amateur astrophotography as well as culturing coral in his saltwater reef aquarium. |
 |
| Margaret Young Secretary/Treasurer (2024-2026) Margaret is a tenured Associate Professor of Biology at Elizabeth City State University. She recently stepped down as the Director of Undergraduate Research. She served as the Education Chair of SIVB 2009-2011. She has had federal and local grants to improve the teaching of plant sciences and molecular biology, which has garnered several departmental awards. These teaching strategies include course-based undergraduate research experiences (CUREs). She has maintained an active research lab in plant tissue culture and transformation of recalcitrant plants including Wisconsin Fast Plants (used extensively in K-12 and undergraduate education). She has mentored over 30 undergrad students at ECSU. She also mentors online high school biology students as part of Planting Science (Botanical Society of America). She currently serves as a member of the Advisory Committee for PlantGene; and for the local community college’s Agribusiness Technology Program. Margaret is originally from Jamaica.
|
 |
| 2025 Plant Section Program Chairs Carlos Hernandez-Garcia 2024 Plant Program Chair (2024-2025) CTC Genomics |
 |
| Heqiang (Alfred) Huo 2024 Plant Program Sr. Co-Chair (2024-2025) University of Florida |
 |
|
Jon Mahoney |
 |
| Plant Section Bylaws |
