Announcing: Third Annual Field Fest, May 31st 3-6pm at Riggs Beer Company in Urbana, IL. Come learn about small grains including #wheat, #barley, #oat, #triticale, and #kernza. Mark your calendars! Riggs Beer Company No registration required.

🌿🌱 Save the date! This year's Plant Science Symposium will be at Funk Library on August 30! 🗓️ Watch the video for more info, and start the countdown! ⌛️ #PSS_UIUC

This F3 wheat plant, direct-seeded from a single seed in the fall, produced 39 heads! Our current speed breeding protocol generates F3:F4 seeds from a parental cross in just 1 year and 8 months. #plantbreeding

3 of the 4 wheat breeding programs present yesterday have at least 1 Filipino grad student. 😅 (L-R) University of Illinois-Urbana Champaign, Michigan State University, The Ohio State University 🇵🇭

Highlights from our Small Grains field day today. Presentations from Breeders and graduate students + BBQ that people were raving about. A lot to be proud of. #wheat #plantbreeding

last field selection task of 2024: final selection of F3 single plants (space planted) that will generate F3:F4 lines. Not sure how effective this is, but it feels wrong not to try. This one is giving me good vibes. #plantbreeding

Attention students! Submit abstracts for 15-minute oral presentations. 3 selected grad students will receive travel grants. All grad and undergrad students are invited to join the poster competition. Showcase your research, gain recognition, and network! docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAI…

One thing I love about NAPB is how the topics presented are concentrated on plant breeding. Another is that I love meeting people in the plant breeding world, especially Filipinos! Here’s our Filipino representatives, from the young ones to the young at heart! 😁🌱

Props to Masha and the organizers for coming up with the karaoke night during the NAPB banquet! That was so fun! 🤟🤟🤟 I think we just unlocked a new NAPB tradition. 😉 Yep. That's Rex Bernardo and the rest of Filipino attendees during the conference. ❤

This is a wrap. The organizing committee extends heartfelt thanks to all the supporting hands that made this event a tremendous success. We appreciate our sponsors, the Department of Crop Sciences, and all the participants. We look forward to seeing you again next year. #PSS_UIUC

Featuring our table display at the 2024 Variety Showcase! We shared our latest developments with the food value chain community, including ‘Erisman’ from our breeding program, delicious galettes made from its flour, and the new value-added breeding lines from my project.

Wrapping up DELTA Corteva U.S. Truly impressed by these amazing scientists. It was a day of impressive talks & posters. Keep these #FutureLeaders on your radar. #STEM #DEI #InclusionMatters #Diversity

I am happy to announce that we will be offering internship positions again for 2025. For more information and for a link to the application form please visit: smallgrains.web.illinois.edu/wp/join-us/ (Note: Applications sent via email or direct message will not be accepted.)

Behold our 4th edition of the Single Plant Nursery. It’s better every year! 📸: Luis Eduardo Gerhke #wheat

Great turnout for the final Game Day Run Club of the regular season…Year 9 in the books! Thanks to all those who ran this season! Over these 9 years, have loved connecting with our fans and creating a special community. Stay tuned for a Bowl Game Run Club! Beat Sparty! 🔶🔷🏃‍♂️🏈

Mesmerizing view of the our newest members of the family. Each of these wheat plots was seeded with the seed of a single unique plant, bred and hand selected by yours truly.

Another opportunity to learn and enjoy small grains in Illinois. Riggs Beer Company At this event we will show participants 18 demo plots of different small grains including wheat, barley, triticale, and Kernza. There will be plenty of time for questions and camaraderie.

🚨 Save the Date 🚨 The 2025 Plant Sciences Symposium is set for Friday, Sept 5 at University of Illinois SMART Agriculture: Predict, Adapt & Sustain Join us to explore innovation in plant science, AI, sustainability & more. #SMARTag #UIUC #CropSciences More details coming soon!

Some shots of our Small Grains field day today. We took a group of participants to 4 different fields and talked about wheat disease control, variety development and selection, and oat/pea intercropping research. Its always fun to show and tell. #wheat #oat

Behind the scenes of the #PlantScienceSymposium is a passionate team of grad students making it all happen! This year, we’re celebrating 10 years, and we’ll be introducing our team one by one. Stay tuned to meet the faces behind #SMARTagriculture