I am a bioinformatics specialist employed at North Dakota State University to support our sunflower breeding and perennial grain domestication efforts using bioinformatic approaches. As part of my position, I maintain our sunflower SQL breeding database, use genomic and phenomic data to inform breeding decisions, and support the completion of research projects and their resulting journal publications.I completed my undergraduate degree in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of Colorado at Boulder in 2015 and took an internship opportunity at the USDA-Agricultural Research Service center in Fargo, ND where I learned to apply my degree to plant breeding. Because of this experience, I completed a master's of science degree in plant sciences (2022) and a master of software engineering master's degree (2021). Since 2021 I have been working in my current role as a Bioinformatics Specialist at NDSU, working in Brent Hulke's research lab at the USDA-ARS Sunflower & Plant Biology Unit in Fargo, ND.I love to bike, cross-country ski, walk with my dogs, and explore nature with my wonderful wife Taylor.To learn more, check out hulkelab.org!