James Schnable Email & Phone Number

Lincoln, Ne, Us

Lincoln, Ne, Us

Lincoln, Ne, Us

Operating an academic lab requires many of the same skillsets as operating a small business. I currently supervise a team of 10 including postdocs, graduate students, and technicians working on diverse problems in the area of plant genetics and digital agriculture and manage a direct research budget of approximately $800,000/year. I'm actively involved in communicating opportunities, needs, and outcomes with stakeholders (grower groups, funding agencies, UNL administrators) as well as building and managing larger teams for federal grants that span disciplines, time zones, and cultures.

Lincoln, Ne, Us

Over a five year time span as an assistant professor, I built my research team from zero to ten full time scientists supported by a mixture of federal funding (DOE, ARPA-E, NSF, USDA, FFAR), stakeholders (Nebraska Corn Board), international fellowships to individual lab members, and reinvestment by UNL. This group published 47 peer reviewed papers over the same five year time span. I attribute much of my success during this period to developing new expertise in plant phenotyping and quantitative genetics and building new connections and collaborations with engineers and statisticians.

Mountain View, Ca, Us

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Visiting researcher in the lab of Prof. Xianmin Diao.Developed a software pipeline for identifying InDel polymorphisms among multiple accessions of foxtail millet (Setaria italica). Worked with a team of three masters students to conduct independent validation of the polymorphisms identified from high throughput sequencing data.

St. Louis, Mo, Us

Employed comparative genomic and transcriptomic techniques to make comparisons among thirty grass species and identify new genes appearing to be involved in C4 photosynthesis. Developed a low-cost photographic phenotyping system based on raspberry pi computers which enabled real time monitoring of drought stress in maize and other grasses.Developed and wrote a successful grant proposal to JGI's Community Science Program supporting the sequencing and assembly of five grass species.

Berkeley, Ca, Us

Student in the Department of Plant and Microbial Biology. Supervised by Prof. Michael Freeling. Learned to program in python and R. Conducted comparative genomic analyses and analyzed high throughput sequencing data.

Ithaca, Ny, Us

Worked on a number of projects with several members of the Brutnell lab.

St. Louis, Mo, Us

Supervised by Dr. Brad Barbazuk and Dr. Yan Fu

Supervised by Dr. Mei Gui

Ames, Iowa, Us

Worked as a summer field manager for Dr. Erik Vollbrecht. Supervised a team of between 3-5 undergraduates shootbagging corn plants, making crosses, and performing general field work.

Phd, Plant Biology

B.A., Biology

Bachelor Of Arts - Ba, Biology