This presentation was recorded at Illinois Soybean Association’s Better Beans event on January 18, 2024 at Rend Lake College in Ina, IL.

Dr. Jessica Rutkoski is a small grains breeder and a quantitative geneticist. Jessica currently leads the winter wheat breeding program at the University of Illinois at Urbana- Champaign. Her mission is to develop wheat varieties that will help enhance farm profitability in Illinois and surrounding states. In line with this goal, Jessica’s scholarly research program develops and implements new ways make plant breeding and variety evaluation more effective with the help of technologies like remote sensing and genomics. Before joining the University of Illinois, Jessica completed her PhD in Plant Breeding at Cornell University and worked internationally for 5 years supporting plant breeding programs in less developed countries.