Samira El Hanafi, from Morocco, is a postdoctoral research fellow at Leibniz Institute of Plant Genetics and Crop Plant Research (IPK) in Germany. She focuses on the development and implementation of genome-wide predictions and association mapping for plant genetic resources, defining trait-customized core collections to maximize the diversity present within IPK genebank accessions, and researching rare alleles by applying genomic tools. She received her Ph.D. from Mohammed V University in Morocco, with research activities funded by the International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA). Her advisors were Wuletaw Tadesse and Souad Cherkaoui. El Hanafi earned her B.Sc. and M.Sc.degrees in biology and management and conservation of biodiversity and biotechnology from Sidi Mohamed Ben Abdellah University in Morocco.