Cecilia Chi-Ham
Director of Research Planning HM.Clause

“The secret to building a successful career is to find the cross-section of your skills and your passions.”

As part of the global management team for Research & Development, Cecilia is responsible for building R&D strategy and identifying new opportunities for innovation. Cecilia also provides direction for the UC Davis – HM.CLAUSE Life Science Innovation Center, a collaboration between the University and HM.CLAUSE that facilitates innovation by giving start-up companies the opportunity to thrive. Prior to joining HM.CLAUSE in 2014, Cecilia served as Director of Science and Technology at the Public Intellectual Property Resource for Agriculture, a nonprofit organization housed at UC Davis. The aim of the organization was the transfer of agricultural technology and intellectual property to developing countries and the private sector. Cecilia earned her BSc in Environmental Science and Organic Chemistry and a PH.D in Biochemistry before doing postdoctoral research at Michigan State University and UC Davis. She is a Registered Patent Agent with the United States Patent and Trademark Office.

Having grown up in Honduras, Cecilia has always been connected to the agricultural community, but her interests were piqued while at UC Davis when she had the opportunity to work with Francois Korn and Kent Bradford on developing the idea for Seed Central. That project is what first exposed her to the seed industry. Having worked at the University before, and now working for the seed industry, what fascinates her most is seeing how the innovations that come from public and private research complete the circle of development when they are transformed into new products, such as new seed varieties for farmers around the world.

Cecilia takes pride in working for the seed industry because it is inherently important in the quest to feed the planet. Coming from a developing country, she is keenly aware of the significance that agricultural productivity holds for economic growth and national security. As such, she finds it rewarding to work for a company that provides reliable and innovative seed products to farmers. Moreover, she appreciates the values that HM.CLAUSE and its parent company uphold, as well as the company’s commitment to people, be they employees, farmers or consumers.

Her advice for job-seekers is to consider a career at a company such as HM.CLAUSE that offers employees the ability to contribute to the success of the company while also facilitating professional and personal growth opportunities.

Leonela Carriedo
Ph.D. Student, Plant Biology

I began my college years as a pre-med major. I am a first generation college student, and at the time, I thought that the only reason people went to college was to either be a doctor, a lawyer or an accountant. I sought mentorship from many senior undergraduate students and they all recommended that I pursue research internships in order to make my medical school application more competitive. I heeded their advice, however, I had no clue what doing research meant or that one could even pursue a career in science. As a requirement for my degree, I had to take various biology courses, including a "Plant Diversity" class. While at first, I was not particularly excited by the idea of taking the course, I was quickly stunned and marveled in the complexity beauty of plant form and function. I gained a deep appreciation for plants, and I felt like I had gained intimate knowledge of something which people usually take for granted.

The following year, I had the opportunity to work at a hospital, and I quickly realized that the medical profession was not a good fit for me. At that point, I knew that I enjoyed research and I still had a profound curiosity for plants. The following semester, I changed my emphasis of study to Plant Biology. My courses in plant taxonomy and plant physiology piqued my interest in further learning about the genetic control of plant form and development, and that following year I started an internship in a lab at the Carnegie Institution's department of Plant Biology in Kathryn Barton's lab, learning how to manipulate gene sequences that control leaf polarity.

That experience was pivotal in my consideration of science as a possible career, and I was encouraged to apply to several graduate programs. I was most drawn to UC Davis and to Julin Maloof's lab for his work in understanding how the environment impacts plant development. At the time I joined the Maloof lab was transitioning towards working with tomato as a model crop system. Working with a crop was important for me, and I threw myself into projects revolving around understanding complex environmental stress responses at the physiological and genetic level.

Working within a model crop system has pushed me to learn more deeply about domestication, how wild species are used for crop improvement and also the challenges we will face attempting to improve our food security in our changing climate. My graduate experience has exposed me not only to a variety of research topics and experimental approaches, but also to how decisions about research are made. Part of my graduate education has been funded by the Office of Research at UC Davis under the Research Investments in Science and Engineering (RISE), that funds and encourages UCD scientists to work on high impact interdisciplinary projects that could open the door to new avenues of research, patents or external funding opportunities. This exposure motivated me to learn more about how research can be moved beyond the lab and be commercialized. These experiences prompted me to consider a career in the seed industry. Through several informational interviews with scientists within the seed industry and visits to local seed companies, I gained an appreciation of the high level of research and the collaborative approach in this industry, and I am excited to explore career opportunities in the seed industry.

Risa DeMasi
Partner, Grassland Oregon
Chair, American Seed Trade Association (2015/2016)

From as young as I can remember, I wanted to own my own business and to express myself creatively.
I initially explored the fashion industry, but unbeknownst to me at the time, my future seemed to be rooted in my past, on the family farm.

I found myself intrigued when two friends presented an opportunity with a fledgling seed company, and soon recognized its creative and entrepreneurial potential.

What followed was the compilation of small seemingly inconsequential decisions over time, fortunate opportunities, and a habit of throwing myself off (proverbial) cliffs to see if I will land.” This resulted in an altogether different creative career and ownership, with two amazing and brilliant partners, of my own seed business.

In 2013 I was invited to take a leadership role in representing the cover crop industry in ASTA becoming the first woman on the board, and now have the privilege of serving as chair of the association this year. In this position, I’ve been able to travel worldwide representing the US seed industry and uncovering opportunities and challenges for growth and collaboration to meet the growing global demand for food, feed, fuel and fiber This adventure has provided some of the most incredible experiences and friendships imaginable.

I love that what I do makes a difference in the world, I love that I work with and cross paths with some of the brightest minds and leaders, and I love that opportunities continue to abound for anyone who opens their mind to possibilities.

Tamara Miller
Ph.D. Student, Crop Improvement

Some of my earliest memories as a kid growing up in Placerville, California, are of learning about plants and tending roses with my grandfather. He was a master gardener and instilled in me a love of botany, gardening, and in general an appreciation for the natural world, which sticks with me today. Even though later when I went off to college at U.C. Berkeley, I initially wanted a career in medicine, I decided to pursue a path in genetics and plant biology because I remembered that even as a young person I found the extreme diversity and complexity of plants to be fascinating. I wanted to focus on how to leverage that diversity in a way that would impact human health.

After earning a B.S. in Genetics and Plant Biology I worked on a project at U.C. Berkeley to improve the nutritional quality of sorghum, a staple crop in Africa and Asia and one of importance for animal feed in the U.S., using a biotechnological approach. Even though the work I did on sorghum represents a possible way that genetic engineering can be applied to improve a trait that impacts human health, crop improvement as a discipline includes a much broader set of tools. In 2012 I joined the Gepts lab at U.C. Davis to learn about how genomics and plant breeding can be applied to improve crops, or more specifically, beans. I earned a M.S. degree in 2014 while working with the African Bean Consortium, which seeks to utilize next generation genetics technologies to improve disease resistance and overall yield in common beans grown in East Africa. In the near future I will be working on a Ph.D. in the Gepts lab, focusing on the genetics of resistance in beans to Angular Leaf Spot, a disease which affects many bean growing regions in Africa and Latin America.

I feel that many of the opportunities I have had throughout my life have been due in part to hard work, but also more importantly, to the influence of several fantastic mentors I have had. I may not have realized my true passion for plants and for nature had it not been for the guiding influence of my grandfather early in life, nor might my interest in bolstering human health through food production have been so strong had it not been for my mentors, who took it upon themselves to educate me about possible career paths I could take in plant science. I feel truly fortunate to be at U.C. Davis, learning about crop improvement, and besides following a career path in plant breeding, my imperative is to pay forward what my mentors did for me by educating young people about career paths in plant science and fostering a collaborative attitude about solving issues related to crop production.

Donna Harris
Tomato Pre-Breeder
Bayer Crop Science Vegetable Seeds / Nunhems USA

I grew up on a small beef cattle farm near Athens, Georgia where my dad was a part time farmer who raised wheat and soybean and full time research professional at the University of Georgia in the soybean breeding program. Thus, I developed a love for agriculture early in life. I chose to attend Georgia Tech after high school for mechanical engineering, but decided after a year and an internship to come back home to UGA and get my B.S. in Crop Science. I also obtained my M.S. and PhD at Georgia in Plant Breeding, Genetics, and Genomics. For five years, between my masters and doctorate, I was a corn breeder in industry.

Since July of last year, I have been with Bayer CropScience Vegetable Seeds as a tomato prebreeder located in Acampo, CA. It has been a fantastic experience thus far! I have enjoyed the change and the challenge of moving from row crops to vegetables. I also love the prebreeder role. In my opinion it is a great combination of academia and industry breeding. I have the opportunity to support breeding through the utilization of unadapted germplasm for gene/allele discovery work.

It has been said ……. “the road to happiness is to fully develop your abilities and then apply them to doing good”. I can’t imagine a better place to be than the “field” we are in.

Mengyuan Xiao
Ph.D. Student, Horticulture & Agronomy

I am interested in crop genetics and breeding. I chose my major because I enjoy exploring the mysteries behind plant life and I also hope my future job could potentially contribute to some global critical issues like food shortage. Crop breeding is one of the most powerful tools to solve this problem, and genetics is the base for modern breeding. My career aspiration is to work as a crop breeder or genetics researcher in seed industry or public research institution.

Renée Lafitte
DuPont Fellow
Woodland Research Station Lead
DuPont Pioneer

Thank you for the opportunity to share my story with you. I started my career in plant science with a clear intention – to help stabilize global food production and reduce poverty. That may sound overly ambitious today, but famines were frequent from 1960-1980, and I had the example of pioneers like Norman Borlaug, M.S. Swaminathan, and others as role models. My training included a BSc in Botany, MSc in Agronomy, and PhD in Crop Physiology, followed by a post-doctoral position at the International Maize Improvement Center (CIMMYT) in Mexico. This is the center where Dr. Borlaug did his work on shuttle breeding for the semi-dwarf, disease-resistant wheat cultivars that supported the Green Revolution. After 9 years in Mexico, I moved to the International Rice Research Institute in the Philippines, where semi-dwarf rice varieties were developed that enabled food self-sufficiency in Asia. For the next 11 years, I continued to live my dream of doing agricultural research in partnership with national programs to improve livelihoods for resource-poor farmers.

In 2005, I accepted a senior scientist position at Pioneer Hi-Bred International (now DuPont Pioneer) here in California. Pioneer also has a global mandate, and research at Pioneer enhances local productivity and affects the global export markets for staple crops like maize and soybean. I have found that the private sector has an exceptional level of focus and ability to deliver on goals. My work is around in-field phenotyping for stress tolerance, and the techniques we have developed have enabled the development of products that are grown across millions of acres. Crops that are resilient in the face of uncertain climate trends are critical to ensuring global food security, and the seed industry is a key player in ensuring their development and deployment. When you add to this the pace of technological advances in genetics, phenotyping, and information management, the seed industry is clearly both an exciting and highly relevant place to work.

Jenna Gallegos
Ph.D. Student, Plant Biology & DEB

I grew up on a cattle ranch in a small community of dry-land farmers in Eastern Colorado. My fascination with genetics began with punnett squares in middle school, so I decided to major in biology at the University of Colorado in Boulder. In a freshman genetics lab, I was required to lead a discussion on science ethics and was assigned the topic of genetically modified organisms. Given my rural background, I was thrilled by the prospect of using molecular biology as a tool to help farmers improve yields and increase the nutrition of staple crops while conserving resources and reducing environmental impacts.

Upon enrolling in the plant biology graduate group at UC Davis, I found a community of scientists committed not only to making discoveries in agriculture, but also to sharing those discoveries through extension and outreach. As a woman from an agricultural background, I am passionate about engaging both concerned consumers and hesitant farmers on topics of new agricultural technologies.

Opportunities for collaboration between academia and industry at Davis such as the Seed Central events and the Designated Emphasis in Biotechnology program have introduced me to the type of fascinating research occurring at biotech companies, and the passion for communication and interdisciplinary collaboration among industry researchers. I plan to explore career options in both industry and academia that provide opportunities for science communication and outreach as well as novel and applicable research in agricultural biotechnology.
 

Jana Mentzer
US Row Crops Commercial Production Lead
Monsanto Company

I have the greatest job in the world! I work in an industry that is always changing & improving, utilizes cutting edge technology, with farmers that passionately care about what they do and want to help the world have a safe and secure food supply for generations to come. Now 20 years after my bachelor’s degree, I’ve had multiple chances to go do something else. No matter how many great opportunities come my way, there isn’t a single one of them that can compete with this industry what I can do with Monsanto.

Getting here involves some strategic thinking and a lot of serendipity. My summer job as a teenager was detasseling corn; a short duration, high paying job…both things that teenagers look for in a job! It is also a lot of work in a hot muddy corn field in July. After graduation, I proudly declared I would never touch a corn field again.

I became a chemical engineer from Iowa State and obtained a great job working for Monsanto making RoundUp®. I had the opportunity to move to St. Louis to be the US Production Planner for all our herbicide products and had full intentions of ultimately moving into further roles in that business and using my chemical engineering degree that I toiled to obtain. Then serendipity starts to enter the picture. While pursuing my MBA, Monsanto acquired DeKalb and Asgrow Seed businesses, among others. I was looking for a next role that would stretch me, while keeping me in St. Louis to finish my degree. A hallway conversation later and I was moving into our DeKalb business as the first female in our corn production team and first without an agronomic background. I really thought it would be a 3 year experiment that would clearly show I needed to go back to chemical engineering.

Fifteen years, seven locations, and four countries later; I am working in seed production and loving it. I’ve had the opportunity to be a process expert, a site leader, a planner, a large team leader in Canada, US, Argentina, and Chile. I have worked with corn, soybeans, canola, and 23 different vegetable species. Who knows what the next years will bring for this industry and my career, but I can’t wait to find out!

Weiyuan Zhu
Graduate Master, Horticulture and Agronomy

I have always been a nature lover and wanted to solve sustainable development issues using creative approaches. In my previous research and work experiences in ecology, horticulture and international agricultural development, I have developed real-world understanding in food security, environmental conservation and global change. Serving in the public and non-profit sectors, I wondered how the private sector tackled the issues.

Last year, as a Business Development Fellow at UC Davis’ Graduate School of Management, I extensively explored entrepreneurship and innovation management on large scale. The mindset transition from science to business was huge, but I enjoyed being stretched and embracing new commercial ideas. I realized the great potential modern technology has to contribute to the new economy. More specifically, in the food and agriculture sector, I identified the seed industry as the next field that I would explore.

Seed Central provides unique opportunities for people from academia and industry to meet. The presentations, field tours and networking events with industry professionals have motivated me to learn more about what the industry has to offer for my professional and personal growth.
 

Sonali Mookerjee
Lettuce Breeder
Enza Zaden

I grew up in a small town in India and no one in my immediate or extended family was associated with the seed industry. Naturally I had no idea that plant breeding could be a career option and I definitely didn’t have any plans of moving to USA and working for major global seed companies. As expected, my decision to continue education in plant sciences was very ‘unusual’ and strongly discouraged.

After completing a Masters (coursework) in India, I moved to Australia (University of Adelaide) to do a thesis-based Masters. My first exposure to plant breeding was in Adelaide when I was working as part-time Research Assistant for fruit breeding projects. Later on, I moved to the US to work on my PhD and I spent a significant amount of time working with breeders at the University of Florida and Michigan State University. I was a student participant of a consortium of Rosaceous Breeders and Molecular Scientists (RosBREED), working on improvement of Rosaceous crops, and that opened doors to interacting with many breeders working on other fruit crops.

When I was close to graduating from Michigan State University, like most graduate students I was faced with the choice of working in the industry or academia. At that time I had the opportunity to spend four months working on a Graduate Internship at Monsanto’s Vegetables Division, where I interacted with several breeders and got to experience some aspects of working in the seed Industry. My internship experience was so positive that I had no second thoughts about joining the seed industry.

After completing my PhD I joined Monsanto R&D IT, but soon I realized that I wanted to have a career in field breeding. I moved to a job as Lettuce Breeder with Vilmorin (Groupe Limagrain). Eventually I moved to Enza Zaden Research USA to continue as a Lettuce Breeder. Currently I work on breeding romaine and green leaf lettuce types for the USA market.

During my short experience in the seed industry I have met some amazing people who are great advisors, mentors, and friends, and whom I value. Overall my experience in the seed industry has been positive and I will encourage women (and men) graduate students to consider a career in the seed industry. I have experienced workplaces with wide contrasts in the ratio of men vs. women and I agree that having strong qualified women in management roles makes a positive difference. In my opinion, as workplaces start accommodating a more diverse group of employees (diversity in gender, nationality, etc.), women and men will be welcomed and accepted as individuals based on their qualifications and abilities, and not because of their gender and other attributes.

Throughout my childhood, my family worked to spark my curiosity and foster my desire for exploration. Now in college I am eager to continue on this path through research and learning.

I currently work in a plant pathology lab with professor Rizzo, where I am able to gain more insight into what options I have in my future.

As I complete my undergraduate college degree, I plan to continue learning more about how I can use the knowledge I have gained to address the different issues that we face as a community.

Iris Tzafrir
Commercial Product Lead
Chair, Women’s Leadership Network
Syngenta Seeds, Inc

I grew up in a small agricultural community in the northern Negev desert of Israel. My community raised barley and wheat, vegetables and citrus trees. Growing up, I did not plan to explore a career in science and technology since I did not have role models to follow such a path. It was thanks to my high school teacher that I fell in love with biology. During my first degree, I came to realize that I was interested in doing science that can translate into commercial applications.

In graduate school I purposely chose a plant pathology project with field application potential. Studying how a virus moves from cell to cell, I discovered a segment of the virus DNA that can drive transgene expression in plants and went on to patent and license the invention. This was my first exposure to a key step in translating science for commercial applications--securing intellectual property and working with partners who are in position to develop a nascent technology into products.

Since graduation I worked in several roles in the agriculture industry: research, licensing and intellectual property, commercial negotiation, and marketing. For about ten years I worked with multi-functional global teams to negotiate and manage transactions and alliances between my company and universities, startups and other companies. In the last two years, I moved to brand management of a corn product portfolio and work closely with both the sales and research teams. The most interesting roles are the ones that require collaboration of experts from different areas.

A couple years ago I was asked to serve as the Chair of our Women’s Leadership Network at Syngenta, an opportunity that allows me to share my and others’ experiences with women who are interested in building their career in agriculture.

Randi Jimenez
Ph.D. Student, Horticulture & Agronomy

I earned a BSc in Plant Biotechnology. I chose to study biotechnology out of high school because it was my favorite class in my favorite subject, biology. As for the plant emphasis, I have always wanted to work with plants since I was a little kid.

While working on my BSc at UC Davis, I took plant breeding as an elective because the lab sounded fun, and between the course itself and the field trips, I was hooked. Several faculty members helped me make my decision, and ultimately I wound up as a MSc student in Hort&Ag. With the help of my MSc advisor, I was able to write a grant and earn a National Science Foundation Fellowship, which allowed me to continue on to a PhD program.

When I finish my PhD, I hope to enter the seed industry as a plant breeder. I love the incorporation of diversity into programs, and I always wind up picking out fruits with unique sets of traits as my favorites.