Valerio Hoyos-Villegas

Valerio is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Plant Science. He holds a research, teaching and service appointment in plant breeding and genetics at McGill University.

Education

• Ph.D., Plant Breeding, Genetics and Biotechnology. Michigan State University (2015)

• M.S., Crop Physiology, University of Missouri (2011)

• B.S., Agronomy, Universidad de Caldas, Colombia (2008)

Active Affiliations

• Executive Leadership Board: North American Plant Phenotyping Network

• Education Committee: National Association of Plant Breeders

• Technical Editor: Crop Science; The Plant Phenome Journal.

• Associate Editor: Frontiers in Plant Science - Plant Breeding Section; Journal of Plant Registrations; New Zealand Journal of Agricultural Research; The Crop Journal.

• Adjunct Lecturer, Lincoln University. Lincoln, New Zealand.

Jeff Smith

Jeff is our field technician in charge of breeding and phenomics operations. He is a McGill graduate in Bioresource Engineering.

Dr. Robert McGee

Dr. McGee is researching:

1) Implementation of genomic selection strategies in pulse crop species.

2) Interspecific hybridization of Phaseolus spp. for enhanced white mold tolerance.

3) Genomic analysis of Sclerotinia variation and coexpression analysis in Phaseolus. Canadian Sclerotinia Initiative

Henry Cordoba

Henry is a PhD student working on:

1. Genomewide association of dry beans for quality traits

2. The impact of deleterious mutations in self pollinated species

Isabella Chiaravalotti

Isabella is a PhD student working on:

1. Optimization of genomic selection strategies using machine learning methods.

2. Empirical analysis of genomic selection approaches.

Mason Jackson

Mason is a MS student working on:

• Model development using drone imaging

Monica Vargas Cedeño

Monica is an MSc student working on: 

Bendable electronics for plant monitoring

Jérôme Gélinas Bélanger - 2024 (PhD)

Soybean flowering GWAS and gene editing.

Laura Esquivel - 2024 (MS)

1. Canadian Sclerotinia Initiative

2. Genomics of white mold disease resistance in common bean

Jennifer Lin - 2022 (MS)

Current position: Medical illustrator

Thesis title: The simulation of plant breeding scenarios in the common bean Phaseolus vulgaris L.

Awards and recognitions: Canadian Plant Breeding Innovation Student Awardee  - 2021

Lucy Egan - 2020 (PhD)

Current position: Research Scientist at CSIRO in NSW, Australia

Co-supervised with Dr. Rainer Hofmann at Lincoln University (New Zealand).

Dissertation title: Germplasm exploration and phenotyping in Trifolium species for the improvement of agronomic traits and abiotic stress tolerance