Past events
for students and postdoctoral researchers  



 

2024

Students & postdoctoral researchers are invited to attend the American Seed Trade Association's Vegetable & Flower Conference in Monterey, California

Every year, ASTA and Seed Central join forces to bring undergraduate & graduate students and post doctoral researchers to the conference, to: attend valuable sessions, learn about the seed industry and its many rewarding employment opportunities, present research posters  network with companies from around the world, and facilitate the search for internships and the first job. Invited this year were students & postdocs from UC Berkeley, UC Davis, Cal-Poly, and California State University Chico, Fresno and Monterey Bay. 35 undergraduate students attended the conference for one day and 25 graduate students and postdoctoral researchers attended the conference for 2 days, sponsored by ASTA and the following Seed Central members

Read the UC Davis Dept. of Plant Sciences news release.

2023

Offered in cooperation with Bayer.

Presented by
Cascinda Fischbeck
Immigration Advisor
Bayer US LLC

Click here to view the slide deck of the workshop.

KWS is one of the world’s leading plant breeding companies. Over 5,000 employees* in more than 70 countries generated net sales of around €1.5 billion in the fiscal year 2021/2022. A company with a tradition of family ownership, KWS has operated independently for 165 years.
It focuses on plant breeding and the production and sale of seed for corn, sugarbeet, cereals, vegetables, oilseed rape and sunflower.
KWS uses leading-edge plant breeding methods to continuously improve yield for farmers and plants’ resistance to diseases, pests and abiotic stress.
To that end, the company invested more than €285 million last fiscal year in research and development.

Panelists:

Dr. Aurelie Bak Senior Research Lead Trait Development Insect Resistance	Fleur Gawehns Scientist Genomics	Dr. Viktor Korzun Global Lead Scientific Affairs	Sang-Kyun Park Expert Global Employer Branding & Talent Attraction
Dr. Delphine Fleury Head of Applied Genomics Vegetables	Dr. Carus John-Bejai Breeder Wheat Pre-Breeding	Dr. Neele Wendler Scientist Traits & Genomics

Information: fkorn@seedcentral.org.
 

• Bayer Vegetable Seeds
  As an innovative vegetable seed company who’s also a world leader in human health and nutrition and horticulture, we are driven to deliver health for all and hunger for none.
  
  But we can’t do it alone. Working together, we can ensure that every seed grows beautifully, harvests efficiently, sells quickly, transports easily, and provides the flavor people want – and the nutrition they need. Together, let’s work to grow your business – so that we can grow a healthier world.
  With more than 20 different crops and thousands of innovative vegetable seed selections, we’re proud to support a diverse range of growers around the world. Together, we’re growing your business and supporting a healthier world.
   
• KWS Saat
  KWS is one of the world’s leading plant breeding companies. Over 5,000 employees in more than 70 countries generated net sales of around €1.5 billion in the fiscal year 2021/2022. A company with a tradition of family ownership, KWS has operated independently for 165 years. It focuses on plant breeding and the production and sale of seed for corn, sugarbeet, cereals, vegetables, oilseed rape and sunflower. KWS uses leading-edge plant breeding methods to continuously improve yield for farmers and plants’ resistance to diseases, pests and abiotic stress. To that end, the company invested more than €285 million last fiscal year in research and development.
   

  Dr. Aurelie Bak KWS Saat Senior Research Lead Trait Development Insect Resistance	Dr. Viktor Korzun KWS Saat Global Lead Scientific Affairs	Vivek Sharma Bayer Vegetable Seeds Global Processing Tomato Breeder Bayer Vegetable Seeds	Jose Santa Cruz Bayer Vegetable Seeds Senior Scientist, Applied Pathology Bayer Vegetable Seeds

BASF's Vegetable Seeds Business, under the Nunhems brand, offers more than vegetable seeds.

We offer partnerships and customer-oriented solutions for the entire vegetable value chain including growers, processors, plant raisers, dealers, traders, retailers and food service industry – tailored to consumer needs and trends.

In collaboration with our partners we are eager to improve our vegetable varieties and solutions for our customers, consumers, and the vegetable value chain worldwide.

All around the world, more than 500 million consumers enjoy vegetables grown from our seeds daily. Our portfolio features 24 vegetable and fruit crops, with 1200 commercialized varieties worldwide guaranteed to fit our growers needs. With around 2000 employees in 37 countries we are highly motivated to make healthy eating enjoyable and sustainable.

Open to all

Seed Central hosts
the California Seed Association's
Fall Student Tour
for lunch, industry testimonials,
and a n

With students from UC Davis, Cal-Poly, California State University Chico / Fresno / Monterey Bay, Woodland Community College, and Woodland high schools

Featuring:

and panelists:

Amelia Valdenegro Plant Breeding Technologist Sakata Seed America	Daniel Barrera Molecular Markers Team Lead Nuseed	Rose Rehrig PVP Scientist Bayer Vegetable Seeds	Robert Blundell Plant Pathologist Pro Farm Group	Simer Virdi Pipeline Enablement Associate Bayer Vegetable Seeds	Stephanie Zullo Head of Pipeline Enablement - Vegetable Breeding Bayer Vegetable Seeds
Debora Wilk Director of Plant Pathology BioConsortia	Stephen Lee Research Technician Sakata Seed America	Dan Liska Western Alfalfa Breeder Forage Genetics International	Sriram Vidyarthi Food Process Engineer The Morning Star Company	Lynn Veenstra Plant Breeder KraftHeinz	Saul Estrada Syntech Research

• East West Seeds
  
  Founded in 1982 by Dutch seedsman and 2019 World Food Prize Laureate Simon Groot, East-West Seed is one of the world’s leading vegetable seed companies in Asia and expanding rapidly in Africa and Latin America. The privately-owned company has played an important role in the development and improvement of tropical vegetable varieties that are adapted to tropical markets and growing conditions. Its mission is to provide innovative products and services that help to improve the livelihood of vegetable farmers. In addition, East-West Seed trains vegetable farmers in order to help maximize their yield and income through better knowledge on vegetable production and farming skills.
  
  In 2019 East-West Seed ranked #1 on the Access to Seeds Index for Global Seed Companies and #1 for South and Southeast Asia Index.
  In 2020, it ranked #28 in Fortune’s Change the World list of companies that are doing well by doing good.
  
  East-West Seed has its headquarters in Nonthaburi, Thailand. The company employs about 5,000 people and has 17 R&D stations in 7 countries. With exports to over 60 countries in tropical areas, East-West Seed serves nearly 20 million farmers around the world
   
• The Morning Star Company
  In 1970, Chris Rufer began Morning Star as a one-truck owner-operator company in California’s Central Valley, hauling tomatoes from fields to canneries.
  
  Today, Morning Star operates three factories with the largest production scale in the world, with resources solely dedicated to tomatoes. We supply over 40 percent of national markets with ingredient tomato paste and diced tomatoes. We provide bulk-ingredient products to food manufacturers and pouch and can ingredient and finished products to the food service and retail trade. We are actively involved in the global tomato industry and ongoing tomato research, and we have pioneered changes in production technology that have helped increase efficiencies throughout the industry. Our sales of tomato products are over $800 million annually. And we still haul our tomatoes from the fields – just as our owner began his journey in 1970.
  
  Our mission is, and has always been, to produce tomato products which consistently achieve the quality and service expectations of our customers in a cost-effective, environmentally responsible manner.

Ryan Termulo Group HR Business Partner, R&D East-West Seeds	Jonathan Kressin Tomato and Bean Pre Breeder East-West Seeds	Gitanshu Munjal Corn Pre Breeder East-West Seeds	Eliot Cline Scientist, Bioinformatics East-West Seeds	Namfon Onmanee Scientist, Genomics Research East-West Seeds

Joe Bauer Learning & Development The Morning Star Company	Sriram Vidyarthi R&D Director The Morning Star Company	Jake Sherman Economist The Morning Star Company	Erik Sunderbruch Marketing & Business Development The Morning Star Company

American Seed Trade Association (ASTA) Leadership Summit
Online & in-person
Sacramento, California

The American Seed Trade Association (ASTA) and Seed Central invited a group of  50 students and postdoctoral researchers to attend the 2023 ASTA Leadership Summit in Sacramento, California on June 12, 2023 to learn about the seed industry and its many rewarding career opportunities, and to make many valuable connections facilitating the first job search.

Undergraduate & graduate students and postdoctoral researchers at the following universities were invited:

Program:

Hedgerow Farms specializes in producing high quality seed of known-origin, wildland collected California native grasses, forbs, sedges and rushes. We offer wholesale seed in single species or custom seed mixes and native grass straw. Our seed and plants are used in wildlife habitat restoration projects, agricultural revegetation projects, for erosion control and urban and rural landscaping.

In-person

From a July 2019 news release:
"Nuseed has begun construction for its Global R&D Innovation Center in West Sacramento’s Riverside Commerce Centre.

Nuseed’s West Sacramento Innovation Center will be a state-of-the-art facility with molecular lab and analytical capabilities, growth rooms, and a greenhouse for canola, sorghum and sunflower hybrid plant trait development. R&D will comprise 60% of the facility’s overall activity.

The Nuseed Innovation Center will house 20 professionals in R&D, finance, human resources, IT and commercial management, and grow to 60 to 75 employees in the next five years.

Nuseed is a subsidiary of Nufarm Australia Limited, which established its first Innovation Center in Horsham, Australia. Leon Streit, head of Global R&D, said “we’ve experienced rapid global growth since our start in Australia in 2006. Nuseed has grown to 250 employees in 11 global locations. Nuseed’s global R&D teams develop unique canola, sorghum and sunflower plant input traits with agronomic and yield benefits for farmers and value-added plant-based solutions for completely new end-use markets.”

• Syngenta
  Syngenta is a leading science-based agtech company. We help millions of farmers around the world to grow safe and nutritious food, while taking care of the planet.
  With:
   

  Bruno Foncelle Head of Americas Vegetables Seeds Development	Fernando Parra HR BP Vegetables North America	Rakesh Kumar R&D Team Lead, Melon	Joe King Market Segment Lead, Vegetables US-West

• Enza Zaden
  Enza Zaden develops new vegetable varieties that are grown, sold and consumed all over the world. Enza Zaden is an independent family business and an international vegetable-breeding company. For three generations, an entrepreneurial spirit, long-term vision and focus on innovation have characterised our company’s distinctive features and healthy growth.
  With:
   

  Cristal Cisneros Specialist Product Development and Sales	Jit Baral Senior Breeder	Kees Konst Crop Research Director	Lance Rowe Manager R&D Operation

• BASF Vegetable Seeds
  BASF's Vegetable Seeds Business, featuring the Nunhems brand, offers more than vegetable seeds. We offer partnerships and customer-oriented solutions for the entire vegetable value chain including growers, processors, plant raisers, dealers, traders, retailers and food service industry – tailored to consumer needs and trends.
  With:
   

  Arwa Shahin Head of Breeding	Pieter van Poppel Lead Trait Development	Rita Nassur Scientist Quality and Nutritional Analytics

At Bayer's invitation, the students of Professor Jamal Javanmardi's Seed Production class attended an online workshop with Bayer's seed production & supply chain specialists.

Moderator	Panelists
Qianni Dong NAM Applied Pathology Testing & DCV Lead in Vegetable R&D	Alyssa Moran Market Development Supply Planner	Chuanmei Zhu Plant Reproductive Biology Scientist	Lara Kramer Data Science Strategy & Delivery Lead - Lab/Plant Product Supply
Luther Kyle Production Representative III	Maegan Carriger Supply Planner	Michael Willey Vegetable Seed Production Lead, North America	Sutter Long Field Production Representative

Click HERE to stream the video recording of the workshop.

with:
Eleni Bachlava Global Head of Applied Genetics, Vegetable & Flowers Seed Development Syngenta Seeds	Mike Gerau Genetics Group Lead, Analytics and Data Science Syngenta Seeds	Abigail McCauley Applied Genetics Scientist, North America Applied Genetics	James Doroghazi Business Strategy Analyst, Seeds Research R&D IT	Sarah Jensen Discovery Breeding Data Scientist, North America Germplasm Discovery

Click HERE to stream the video recording of the workshop.
 

Held in conjunction with the U.N. Day of Women and Girls in Science, The goal of the GWB series is to establish an active network of people of all genders to overcome the barriers to gender equality in science.

The theme of #GWB2023 is “Breaking Barriers in Science”. Groups from all types of science organizations from high schools, to science societies, universities, companies, governments and non-governmental organizations are invited to host events. GWB is also a flagship event of the International Year of Basic Sciences for Sustainable Development bringing together people from all science disciplines.

American Seed Trade Association's Vegetable & Flower Conference
Orlando, Florida

Every year, ASTA and Seed Central join forces to bring undergraduate & graduate students and post doctoral researchers to the conference, present research posters, and network at the many socials.

In January 2023 a group of 27 undergraduate & graduate students and postdoctoral researchers from universities around the U.S. attended the conference in Orlando, Florida.
ASTA sponsored room and board.
The following Seed Central members sponsored transportation:

Information: fkorn@seedcentral.org.

2022

Bayer Mentorship Testimonials

4:00-5:00 PM

UC Davis is now included in Bayer’s University Mentorship Program.
On October 20, the first cohort of mentees and mentors will provide testimonials
about their experiences.
UC Davis graduate students are invited to attend the event, meet mentees and mentors,
and learn about opportunities to be part of this new program.

Interested UC Davis graduate students should contact François Korn, fkorn@seedcentral.org.

Visit of Bayer Field Day in Woodland, California

Interested UC Davis graduate students and post docs should contact François Korn, fkorn@seedcentral.org.

Online sessions at the American Seed Trade Association's Leadership Summit 2022

The NEW ASTA Leadership Summit will bring our key policy and educational program to Indianapolis, home to so many of our member companies, offering both in-person and virtual options for seed industry professionals.

American Seed Trade Association's Vegetable & Flower Conference

ASTA’s Vegetable and Flower Seed Conference offers unrivaled networking and educational opportunities for the global vegetable and flower seed industry. This event continues to be America’s fastest growing seed industry conference.

12 undergraduate and graduate students, and postdocs, were invited to attend the conference, sponsored by ASTA, Bayer, Sakata and Syngenta. All of them presented a research poster at the conference.
Many others attended sessions remotely.

Click HERE to read the article written by the students/postdocs about this trip.

2021

Online sessions at the
American Seed Trade Association's
CSS 2021 & Seed Expo

Don't miss the latest and newest session on the CSS & Seed Expo agenda - a whole new track of hybrid virtual sessions for seed industry professionals of all levels to hone their career skills. The tentative agenda includes:

• 9:30 - 10:30 am: Communicating Effectively
  • Navigating both sides of divisive topics
  • Using communication to escalate your career
  • Speaking publicly vs. privately
• 10:45 - 11:45 am: Managing through Crisis Situations
  • Finding employees/navigating labor shortages
  • Managing burnout; signs and remedies
• 1:00 - 2:00 pm: Consumer Outlook
  • Driven by demands
• 2:15 - 3:15 pm: Seed Science Challenge Reports
  • Hear from students participating in the Seed Science Foundations' United Nations project on how plant breeding will affect the future of our ability to feed the world!

Participating companies:

Bayer Vegetable Seeds Anna Jahnsen NA Product Supply Production Transformation Lead Hannah Neuenschwander Production Lead of Commercial Soybean Production Qianni Dong NAM Applied Pathology Testing and Disease Claim Verification Lead
Enza Zaden Katharina Wigg Onion Breeder Mahnaz Kargar Researcher; Post Harvest Oscar Crispin Assistant Researcher, Pathology
BASF Vegetable Seeds Carlos Galeano Senior Scientist Crop Genetics Markus Berns Senior Scientist Technology Development Suri Jiao Sr. Scientist Biostatistics

Seed Central event
Encounter with Patty Buskirk
Managing Partner, Seeds by Design and Terra Organics

Discover alternative ways to operate in the seed industry
and to serve the farmers, and find out how the industry offers rewarding careers for women.

Seeds by Design’s original concept in 1994 was based on the production, marketing, and brokering of high quality, open pollinated vegetable seed varieties to the home garden market. Shortly thereafter, we discovered the seed market was saturated with many seed companies selling the same products. The realization that seed buyers were hungry for new and unique products to grow their own market channels, helped create the innovation that continues to drive Seeds by Design to become and remain a market leader.

Seeds by Design’s collection of experimental niche markets, including heirloom, hybrid, open pollinated, and uniquely colored vegetables, are expanding faster than we can produce the seed. Currently, Seeds by Design’s product line consists largely of proprietary and specialty products that are only available for purchase from us. Seeds by Design’s knowledge and experience creates the foundation to produce high quality wholesale products and distribute both domestically and internationally with the diversity and service our customers demand.

Learn more at www.seedsbydesign.com

This event is part of Seed Central's series of events featuring women in our industry.
Previous events included:

• Her Startup - Encounters with women entrepreneurs who launched their own companies in ag & food, from seed to health (April 2021)
• The 'Job Panorama' in a seed company (April 2019)
• Seed & agbiotech professionals with atypical backgrounds (March 2018)
• Women in biotech (March 2017)
• The seed industry is a great place for women to work - and for men too (January 2016)

Participating companies:

Bayer Vegetable Seeds Yang Bian Predictive Breeding Lead of Veg R&D Laura Gallegos Applied Pathology Lead – U.S. West
others to be announced

Online company visit at

Click here to stream the event

You will discover East-West Seed, a company that introduced market-oriented plant breeding in Southeast Asia in 1982, with the mission to improve the income of smallholder farmers through high-quality vegetable seeds.

Founded in 1982 by Dutch seedsman and 2019 World Food Prize Laureate Simon Groot, East-West Seed is one of the world’s leading vegetable seed companies in Asia and expanding rapidly in Africa and Latin America. The privately-owned company has played an important role in the development and improvement of tropical vegetable varieties that are adapted to tropical markets and growing conditions. Its mission is to provide innovative products and services that help to improve the livelihood of vegetable farmers. In addition, East-West Seed trains vegetable farmers in order to help maximize their yield and income through better knowledge on vegetable production and farming skills.

In 2019 East-West Seed ranked #1 on the Access to Seeds Index for Global Seed Companies and #1 for South and Southeast Asia Index.

In 2020, it ranked #28 in Fortune’s Change the World list of companies that are doing well by doing good.

East-West Seed has its headquarters in Nonthaburi, Thailand. The company employs about 5,000 people and has 17 R&D stations in 7 countries. With exports to over 60 countries in tropical areas, East-West Seed serves nearly 20 million farmers around the world.

Since 2013 East-West Seed works every year with Seed Central to recruit students for 3-month internships at its research stations in Southeast Asia.

Participants:

• Darush Struss, Group Biotechnology Manager
• Yuenyad Teerawatsakul, Research and Development Manager
• Hatthaya Arunothayanan, Molecular Genetics Lab Manager and Head of Molecular Plant Pathology
• John Szeridan Sotelo, Group Cell Biology Manager
• Eliot Cline, Head of Bioinformatics\
• Namfon Chomkaeo, Head of Genomics Research
• Kamolrat Boonmawat, Head of Trait Genotyping
• Sukrakran Sriboon, Head of Genome Editing
• Sean Paul Nyikos, Master Roboticist
• Janya Laepong, Researcher (Cell Biology)
• Titnarong Heng, Researcher (Genomics Research)
• Sandeep Mangare, Crop Breeding Manager (Pepper and Eggplant)
• Youngin Kim, Associate Pre-breeder (Pepper)
• Worachet Thepkham, HR assistant

Policy & Leadership Development Conference
of the American Seed Trade Association

A great opportunity to learn about the U.S. seed industry
and its many internships and career opportunities.

With sessions of particular interest to students:

2:00 PM to 1:00 PM EDT
The Mentor/Mentee Relationship
Speakers:
- Claudia Germeshausen, HM.Clause
- Luke Knight, Corteva Agriscience
- Curtis Wiltse, Beck’s Superior Hybrids
- John Latham, Latham Hi-Tech Seeds
This session will provide an discussion on how to develop a mentor/ mentee relationship to find guidance as you navigate your career.

1:00 to 1:45 PM EDT
Diversity and Inclusion in the Seed Industry:
Creating Opportunity for Future Leaders
Speakers:
- Kellie Adesina, Bayer
- Karis Gutter, Corteva Agriscience
You will hear from ASTA member company representatives, USDA and the 1890s Universities organization, collaboratively discussing how to create opportunities for future leaders. Following the session, a round table discussion will be offered for further discussion.

2:00 – 2:45 PM EDT
Future of Work
So much has changed in the past 15 months with regard to the American workplace. How can leaders best manage their team, and how can employees best manage their career and the work-life balance in this "next normal"? This session will explore the future of work after COVID-19 and how you should prepare for your company's immediate future.

4:00 to 5:00 PM EDT
Women in Seed
Speakers:
- The Honorable Joni Ernst (R., IA), United States Senate
- Shannon Latham, member of the Iowa House of Representatives and VP at Latham Hi-Tech Seeds.
 

Click here to stream the event
 

We are global. We are local. We are HM.CLAUSE.
We specialize in the breeding, production, and sales of vegetable seeds. From the world market to the farmer’s market, we collaborate with our customers to deliver successful solutions for the agricultural challenges of today, and produce the highest quality seeds for the future. Our global team of experts and state-of-the-art research facilities enable us to work side-by-side with growers to provide the most regionally relevant and reliable vegetable seeds available.

HM.CLAUSE is a business unit of Limagrain, an international co-operative agricultural group, specializing in field seeds, vegetable seeds and cereal products. With a team of 2,800 professionals in over 30 countries, we are dedicated to the sustainable solutions for the land, successful products for our customers, and intensive research and innovations for the future.
 

Sukhpreet Sandhu IP & Innovation Center Leader	Keith Walker Research Station Manager	Juan Carlos Rodriguez Labor Project Manager	Jafer Salman Cell Biology Research Assistant	Sarah Smith Squash Breeder	Michelle Ma Pathology Support Lab Manager

Seed Central Career Development Workshop
Legal matters

Click here to stream the event

Learn about all things legal which you will encounter when you work in industry:

• the employment contract
• the non-disclosure agreement
• intellectual property in the seed and agbiotech industry
• how intellectual property and intellectual property protection impact the work of industry researchers
• in- and out-licensing of technology

Eloy Corona Executive Director Seed Innovation and Protection Alliance	Don Mendel Attorney with over 40 years of experience in the plant and seed industry	Alissa Eagle Assistant General Counsel Bayer Vegetable Seeds	Benito Juarez R&D Manager & Senior Plant Breeder Sakata Seed America

Click here to stream the event
 

Online company visit at
Bayer Vegetable Seeds

(link forthcoming)

Lisa McDaniel Head of Global Outreach & Engagement, Vegetables R&D	JD Rossouw Head of Vegetables Research & Development	Qianni Dong NAM Applied Pathology Testing & DCV Lead in Vegetable R&D	Chow-ming Lee Consumer & Sensory Science	Charles Hagen Pathology Technologies Team Lead, Intrapreneur and Science Fellow

General info session

Women in seed

Career development workshop
Job Panorama session
Seed company employees in a variety of jobs will speak about their career path, current jobs, and what it’s like to work in the seed industry.
Presented by HM.Clause
Click here to stream the event

Claudia Germeshausen Global Lead of Organizational Development	Leo Camelo Regional Sales Director, South East Region	Geeta Sanjeev Global Quality Control Director	Taylor Chaisson Product Manager for Corn	Chad Kramer AMPA Breeding Director

Career development workshop
Interviewing skills
Taught by a seed company's HR specialists and employees.
Presented by Bayer Vegetable Seeds
Click here to stream the event