Jessica Rutkoski, from the U.S., finished her PhD in the laboratory of Mark Sorrells at Cornell University, and then became an assistant professor at Cornell and adjunct associate scientist at CIMMYT, working on integrating genomic selection and high-throughput phenotyping to predict breeding values for yield in wheat. Jessica now leads the quantitative genetics cluster at IRRI where her research focuses on improving rice breeding efficiency and dissecting genetic and agronomic trends from historical data to monitor breeding program effectiveness.