Plant Scientist at Bayer
Dr. Jasper Alpuerto’s journey with crops begins with his bachelor’s degree in science, Agronomy and Crop Science at the University of the Philippines Los Baños. He knew that he wanted to work with plants after graduating in 2010. The connection of his university got him the opportunity to be interviewed and later getting involved as a researcher at the international Rice Research Institute (IRRI). He worked with wild type rice species to identify genes that contribute to the tolerance of biotic and abiotic stress. He took the international networking opportunity at IRRI and pursued his graduate degree at the University of Maine. And that begins his education journey of Plant science in the U.S. He earned his PhD degree at Virginia Tech and Postdoctoral at Texas A&M AgriLife Research. Thinking back, the enthusiasm, open minded to networking, and the right timing of opportunity got him to today’s achievement in the research of plant science.
Exiting academia in 2021, Dr Jasper Alpuerto now is a plant scientist at Bayer. His goal is to contribute to uncovering the physiological basis and molecular regulation of plant response to abiotic (flooding, drought, salinity, nitrogen deficiency) and biotic stresses (insects, plant pathogens). By testing, applying, and implementing this information, he will be able to contribute to the overarching goal of crop improvement. He is actively involved in major crops (maize, soybean, potato, rice, wheat), wild species of rice and potato, Arabidopsis, ryegrass, and orchard grass research.
On the future of research in agriculture he emphasized sequence analysis, identifying traits by genomic analyses, phenomics together with image analyses from big data sets to understand plant responses will be important to address future agricultural issues. He went on to highlight the role machine learning can play in predicting changes by modeling and Automation of Farming. He recommended having some background in computational biology.
Authors: Winnie Wen and Melvin Holdanu
Exiting academia in 2021, Dr Jasper Alpuerto now is a plant scientist at Bayer. His goal is to contribute to uncovering the physiological basis and molecular regulation of plant response to abiotic (flooding, drought, salinity, nitrogen deficiency) and biotic stresses (insects, plant pathogens). By testing, applying, and implementing this information, he will be able to contribute to the overarching goal of crop improvement. He is actively involved in major crops (maize, soybean, potato, rice, wheat), wild species of rice and potato, Arabidopsis, ryegrass, and orchard grass research.
On the future of research in agriculture he emphasized sequence analysis, identifying traits by genomic analyses, phenomics together with image analyses from big data sets to understand plant responses will be important to address future agricultural issues. He went on to highlight the role machine learning can play in predicting changes by modeling and Automation of Farming. He recommended having some background in computational biology.
Authors: Winnie Wen and Melvin Holdanu