Howdy! I am Edgar, a plant scientist interested in the fields of plant breeding, phenotyping, statistics, large data, and phytopathology.A bit about myself, I attended Virginia Tech for undergraduate studies, where I started off as a Biology major. I felt that it was too broad, so I decided to look into other science majors. While searching, I came across the Crop and Soil Environmental Sciences department, where they offered a major in Crop and Soil Sciences. Within the major there were different areas of focus. Crop Genetics & Breeding was one of the concentration and was what convinced me of switching majors. I looked into the type of careers within the field and believed it encompassed a perfect mixture of my interests; science, plants, genetics, and creativity! I wanted to dive deeper into the plant breeding field, so I contacted Dr. Bo Zhang, lead soybean breeder at Virginia Tech. She gave me a small project, to evaluate different soybean varieties for sprouting characteristics. After a month of helping, I was hired as an undergraduate research assistant. During my three years, I was heavily involved in the program. I helped with field notes, harvesting, collecting phenotypic data, planting, crossing, and lab work. I say that this is where I developed my basic foundation of plant breeding and will always be grateful for what I learned.I was highly intrigued with the field that I decided to continue the path towards becoming a plant breeder. I pursued a M.S. in Horticultural Sciences at Texas A&M University with Dr. Subas Malla, vegetable breeder at Uvalde’s AgriLife Research Center. My research was focused on watermelon breeding, I evaluated different varieties to identify ones suitable to Texas. I also worked on screening for race 2 anthracnose resistance within watermelon. I had the opportunity to build on my foundation by learning to statistically evaluate data, manage plants, and understand plant pathology.