Muhammad Afzal is a Postdoctoral Scientist at the State Plant Breeding Institute in the Wheat Research Group.

His PhD research was about “Deciphering the potential of large-scale proteomics to improve product quality and nutritional value in different wheat species”.

Currently, he is working on the project BETTERWHEAT in collaboration with industrial partners aiming at improvement of the wheat crop. His focus is on the use of modern statistical techniques to discover novel methods for determining grain quality and explore the genetic architecture of important agronomic traits and health-related grain components.

m.afzal@uni-hohenheim.de

LinkedIn | Twitter: @afzalx7

Félicien Akohoue is a PhD candidate at the State Plant Breeding Institute in the Rye and Biotic Stress Research Group.

He is working on Fusarium Head Blight (FHB) and Giberella Ear Rot (GER) in maize. His interest is to increase host resostance to theses diseases by exploiting genomic background resistance to FHB in wheat and transferring GER resistance genes from European flint landraces into commercial maize lines for higher resistance to ear rot and mycotoxin contaminations.

felicien.akohoue@uni-hohenheim.de

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Desmond Darko Asiedu is a PhD candidate at the State Plant Breeding Institute.

His research focuses on deciphering the genetic architecture of Fusarium Stalk Rot (FSR) resistance among doubled haploid lines from European maize landraces. His goal is to subsequently develop commercial maize lines fortified with FSR resistance genes. This research promises to decrease production expenses for farmers while also mitigating mycotoxin contamination, which poses threats to human and animal health.

desmond.asiedu@uni-hohenheim.de

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Vincent Braun is a PhD candidate in the soybean group of the State Plant Breeding Institute at the University of Hohenheim

After working as a consultant for two years, he has now returned to university to work on soybean breeding and delve even deeper into the world of quantitative genetics. Both the demand and supply of soybeans from Germany have increased steadily in recent yeras. However, due to climate change, weather extremes such as long dry spells are on the rise, posing major challenges for farmers. Vincent works on the SENSOJA project, which aims to accelerate breeding progress using drones, advanced sensor technology and phenomic selection. In this way, we try to take a step forward in the fight against climate change and contribute to solving future challennges.

vincent.braun@uni-hohenheim.de

Che-Wei Chang is a PhD candidate at the Institute of Plant Breeding, Seed Science and Population Genetics, Department of Crop Biodiversity and Breeding Informatics.

He initially worked on a project on genomic prediction in barley populations with exotic genetic backgrounds in his PhD study. Later, his research switched to exploring adaptive genomic variations in barley germplasm that are useful for improving abiotic stress tolerance in pre-breeding. He is using various population genetics and landscape genetics approaches and simulations to investigate the genomic adaptation to environmental stress in wild relatives and landraces of barley.

chewei.chang@uni-hohenheim.de

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Cleo Döttinger is a PhD candidate at the Department of Plant Breeding at the Institute of Plant Breeding, Seed Science and Population Genetics.

Her research is based on the citizen science project “1000 Gardens” that investigates soybean adaptation across Germany. The main goals of the project are to increase the area of soybean cultivation in Germany by identifying well adapted genotypes and to investigate the effects of diverse environmental influences by the help of hundreds of gardeners.

After completing her PhD she aims for a career in a private breeding company.

cleo.doettinger@uni-hohenheim.de

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Dr. Khaoula El Hassouni is a post-doctoral researcher in the BETTERWHEAT project at the State Plant Breeding Institute of the University of Hohenheim.

Her research aims to understand the genomic and proteomic architecture and environmental variability of quality and health related traits in wheat. Khaoula did her PhD in plant breeding at the International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA) and the University of Mohamed 5th through a project funded by Grains Research and Development Corporation (GRDC). During her PhD she worked on understanding the plant adaptive mechanisms and molecular basis of tolerance to drought, heat and mineral toxicities in durum wheat.

khaoula.elhassouni@uni-hohenheim.de

LinkedIn | Twitter: @K__ELHassouni

Clemens Hacke is a PhD candidate at the Institute of Plant Breeding, Seed Science, and Population Genetics, Department of Crop Biodiversity and Breeding Informatics.

His research interests are population and quantitative genetics. He has conducted research on selective sweeps in quinoa and canihua, identifying regions under strong selection and comparing selective signals between different groups. He recently commenced his work on the "SENSOJA" project. The aim of the "SENSOJA" project is to test phenomic selection in soybean and compare it to genomic selection. The goal is to gain new insights into drought tolerance mechanisms in early maturing soybean varieties and enhance the efficiency of current soybean breeding processes.

clemes.hacke@uni-hohenheim.de

Lukas John is a PhD candidate at the Institute of Crop Sciences at the Department of Physiology of Yield Stability.

In order to face climate change, it is particularly important to identify crop cultivars that are adapted to extreme environments. Therefore, the phenotypical appearance of crops can be monitored to find resistant or tolerant accessions. During his PhD Lukas is investigating the phenotypic response of 250 Chenopodium quinoa accessions towards different abiotic stresses as part of the PRIMA-funded project “Quinoa4Med”. Finally, this information will be used to identify underlying coping mechanisms thus unravelling breeding targets.
The result of this research offers a potential high-value crop to farmers living in regions facing abiotic stresses, and therefore possibly strengthens affected countries socioeconomically.

lukas.john@uni-hohenheim.de

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Marius Kollmar is a PhD candidate at the Institute of Crop Sciences at the Department of Physiology of Yield Stability.

Chenopodium quinoa is a crop adapted to saline and drought conditions with seeds of high nutritional value. Quinoa accessions are categorized as either 'bitter' or 'sweet' based on their seed saponin content. Saponins are anti-nutritional secondary plant metabolites, which have to be removed before human consumption, with a high resource- and cost-intensive process.

To help understanding the trade-offs between ‘bitter’ and ‘sweet’ quinoa accessions, Marius dedicates his research towards unraveling the mechanisms of saponin biosynthesis and their impact on other beneficial secondary plant metabolites and nutrient bioavailability in quinoa seeds.

marius.kollmar@uni-hohenheim.de

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Carina Meyenberg is a PhD candidate in the wheat research group at the State Plant Breeding Institute at the University of Hohenheim.

Her current research focus is on phenomic prediction in different wheat species using near infrared spectra (NIRS). Moreover, Carina will work on a simulation to identify efficient wheat breeding schemes that implement phenomic prediction.

After her graduation, Carina aims at a career in a private breeding company.

c.meyenberg@uni-hohenheim.de

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Mohammad Omran is a Research Scientist and PhD candidate at the Department of Crop Biodiversity and Breeding Informatics, situated in the Institute of “Plant Breeding, Seed Science and Population Genetics” at the University of Hohenheim.

He received his undergraduate education in agronomy in Syria and pursued his postgraduate studies in biotechnology and plant breeding in Hungary, France and Finland. He is very keen on building on his current understanding of plant breeding and research and to level up his skills in unsing its multifaceted tools.

The absence of an efficient and reliable hybridisation technology in quinoa has long been halting the progression in breeding and adapting the crop to environments outside of its centre of origin. At the Schmid Lab, Mohammad is working within the project QUIZ. This national-scale project is expected to achieve breakthroughs in quinoa breeding in connection with flower developmental biology: together with research partners from public and private sectors in Germany, QUIZ will show-case how genomics, phenomics and haploid technology can swiftly advance quinoa’s potential in terms of both superior yield to current cultivars and better adaptation to the long-day environment in Central Europe.

mohammad.omran@uni-hohenheim.de

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Niharika Rakasi is a PhD candidate at the Institute of Plant Breeding, Seed Science and Population Genetics, Department of Crop Biodiversity and Breeding Informatics.

Her research focuses on developing quinoa breeding programs for the Mediterranean regions. It involves developing plant breeding strategies to introduce multi-purpose quinoa varieties that are better adapted to saline, marginal soils, withstand climatic change, reduce post-harvest processing, and enrich plant diversity for sustainable agricultural management. She works on several aspects of breeding such as developing a new quinoa MAGIC population from genetically diverse parental lines, genetic mapping of the traits and genomic prediction.

niharika.rakasi@uni-hohenheim.de

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Sandra Roller is currently pursuing a PhD at the Institute of Plant Breeding, Seed Science, and Population Genetics, specifically in the Department of Plant Breeding.

Her research interests are centered around maize breeding for reduced phosphorus application in agriculture. In her research, she examines a wide diversity of elite and landrace genotypes on a phenotypical and genetic basis. Currently, she is investigating these interests through her involvement with the AMAIZE-P project, which is cetered around the exploration of the phosphate cycle in a future scenario with maximized phosphate use efficiency and minimized losses.

sandra.roller@uni-hohenheim.de

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Marvin Rose is a PhD candidate at the State Plant Breeding Institute in the Rye Research Group.

His work is centered around the "Roggen Pop" project, which is dedicated to improving the performance of rye populations in organic farming. The project encompasses the establishment of breeding schemes using genomic prediction, the optimisation of performance testing under organic conditions, and the investigation into baking quality of rye. As an integral part of the project, hybrid varieties are introduced into the rye population. This inclusion also necessitates the study of self-fertility and the pursuit of developing diagnostic markers for its elimination. Each of these elements contributes to the project's goal of advancing organic farming and the cultivation of rye.

marvin_rose@uni-hohenheim.de

Lars Solterbeck is a PhD candidate at the Department of Plant Breeding at the Institute of Plant Breeding, Seed Science and Population Genetics, in collaboration with the State Plant Breeding Institute.

He recently started his work with triticale to dissect its phenotypic variation and the genetic architecture underlying important agronomic traits. To assist in the development of future genomic-assisted breeding strategies, the interaction of yield components with reduced nitrogen input in different environments and possible solutions for breeding high yielding, stable genotypes are investigated.

lars.solterbeck@uni-hohenheim.de