A Year of Collaboration
CROPS is proud to report on a highly successful and productive year defined by robust intellectual exchange, professional development, and community building. We are deeply grateful to our partners, including the Plant Biology student organization and PSI, for their continued generous support, as well as to all our donors.
2026 CROPS Board Elected
As we transition into the new year, we are pleased to welcome the newly elected 2026 CROPS Board, which brings a mix of experience and fresh perspective:
President: Benjamin Turc (continuing from 2025)
Vice President: Thiago Maia (continuing from 2025)
Secretary: Mubarak Isa (new)
Treasurer: Kenji Sugita (new)
Social Chair: Emmanuel Biney (new)
We look forward to their leadership in continuing our mission of building a strong, supportive, and vibrant community of plant scientists.
Seminar Series Highlights: Bridging Research and Commercialization
Our seminar series brought several distinguished speakers to UNL, covering cutting-edge research and career-defining opportunities, we highlight a few recent examples:
Ryan Rapp, CEO of Terrana Biosciences, a Flagship Origination Partner, gave a short talk followed by an open discussion and lunch. Ryan, an experienced leader in Ag-Biotech, shared opportunities for graduate students and post-docs to apply for a fellowship program designed to help them translate their expertise in agriculture and biology into the skills needed to work in venture capital this December
Timothy James Nicodemus, former UNL graduate student, returned and talked about his research and scientific journey as a post-doc in September.
We also hosted a series of amazing academic speakers, including Saet-Byul Kim, Clemencia Rojas, Brian Rice, Lise Pingault, Sai Subhash, and Showmic Islam, among others.
Community & Professional Development
We continue to support student and postdoc professional development and foster vital community connections:
- Travel Grants: We are proud to have funded more than eight travel grants to support early career plant scientists from UNL in presenting their research at national and international conferences.
- Outreach: Our successful fundraiser and outreach event at East Campus Discovery Days featured a traditional ornamental plant sale that engaged the public and supported our activities.
- Social Events: We hosted multiple social events throughout the year, including an Oktoberfest Rooftop Social at Bierhaus during the 2025 PSI Symposium.
We look forward to building this momentum in 2026 and continuing to connect with our vibrant and supportive plant science community at UNL!