Uploaded May 2025 | Updated September 2026, 1 week ago
#food #farming #farmer #foodsecurity
In this video, I talk to Moira Sheehan about her research related to plant breeding and the complex dynamics of keeping our food system secure.
Moira Jane Sheehan is a Senior Research Associate in the Cornell Institute for Biotechnology within the Research Division and an Adjunct Professor in the Plant Breeding and Genetics section of the School of Integrative Plant Science (SIPS). She is the Director of the Breeding Insight (BI) program at Cornell and co-director of BI OnRamp at NC State University. Breeding Insight, and its sister program BI OnRamp, have a common mission to bring genomic and phenomics tools and software solutions to ARS breeders, particularly those breeding specialty crops or animals. Breeding Insight was created in 2018 to aid technology adoption and expand ARS breeding program capabilities. In 2021, BI was expanded from the first 6 pilot species (alfalfa, blueberry, sweetpotato, rainbow trout and North American Atlantic salmon) with the addition of 7 additional species (cranberry, cucumber, lettuce, honeybee, lettuce, oat, and pecan). BI OnRamp was initiated in 2021 to allow more ARS breeding programs access to BI tools, technologies, methodologies, and software. BI OnRamp currently serves 4 species (citrus, cotton, soybean and sugarcane). Breeding Insight and BI OnRamp are both USDA-ARS funded initiatives that together serve 17 different plant and animal species.
Before coming to Cornell, Moira worked for 9 years at Nature Source Improved Plants as Research Scientist and Project Manager. In that time, she worked with a wide array of different crops, including potato, tea, and soybean, helping seed companies and vertically integrated food companies optimized their breeding pipelines and implement genomic selection.
She received her PhD in Plant Biology from Cornell in 2006.
#food #farming #farmer #foodsecurity
In this video, I talk to Moira Sheehan about her research related to plant breeding and the complex dynamics of keeping our food system secure.
Moira Jane Sheehan is a Senior Research Associate in the Cornell Institute for Biotechnology within the Research Division and an Adjunct Professor in the Plant Breeding and Genetics section of the School of Integrative Plant Science (SIPS). She is the Director of the Breeding Insight (BI) program at Cornell and co-director of BI OnRamp at NC State University. Breeding Insight, and its sister program BI OnRamp, have a common mission to bring genomic and phenomics tools and software solutions to ARS breeders, particularly those breeding specialty crops or animals. Breeding Insight was created in 2018 to aid technology adoption and expand ARS breeding program capabilities. In 2021, BI was expanded from the first 6 pilot species (alfalfa, blueberry, sweetpotato, rainbow trout and North American Atlantic salmon) with the addition of 7 additional species (cranberry, cucumber, lettuce, honeybee, lettuce, oat, and pecan). BI OnRamp was initiated in 2021 to allow more ARS breeding programs access to BI tools, technologies, methodologies, and software. BI OnRamp currently serves 4 species (citrus, cotton, soybean and sugarcane). Breeding Insight and BI OnRamp are both USDA-ARS funded initiatives that together serve 17 different plant and animal species.
Before coming to Cornell, Moira worked for 9 years at Nature Source Improved Plants as Research Scientist and Project Manager. In that time, she worked with a wide array of different crops, including potato, tea, and soybean, helping seed companies and vertically integrated food companies optimized their breeding pipelines and implement genomic selection.
She received her PhD in Plant Biology from Cornell in 2006.
