Dr. Feng Lin earned his Ph.D. in plant genetics and breeding from Purdue University. His dissertation was focused on the identification of novel Rps genes for soybean Phytophthora root and stem rot diseases. Upon graduation, he took the corn breeder position at Dupont Pioneer, where his task was to improve spring corn hybrids in northeast China. He then joined the soybean breeding program at Michigan State University and was mainly focused on breeding soybean disease resistance to SCN, SDS, white mold, Phytophthora root rot, Pythium root rot, and soybean aphids, as well as other important traits such as high oleic and high protein.

Dr. Lin is now the soybean breeder at the Fisher Delta Research, Extension, and Education Center (FD-REEC). The breeding goals of this program are to deliver superior soybean varieties and germplasm lines with high yield potential, genetic diversity, broad adaptation, multiple disease resistance, environmental stress tolerance, and improved seed quality traits, including high protein, high oil, high sucrose, low stachyose, high oleic, high stearic, low linolenic, and other soy food attributes. Efforts are also made in selecting superior lines with a strong defense package, including resistance to stem canker, sudden death syndrome, frogeye leaf spot, Phytophthora root rot, charcoal rot, Phomopsis seed decay, cyst nematode, root-knot nematode, and reniform nematode. In addition, we select lines with natural tolerance to off-target Dicamba damage, drought, flood, and salt stress. What’s more, we are deploying state-of-the-art breeding technologies such as marker-assisted selection (MAS), genomic selection (GS), and artificial intelligence (AI)-assisted selection (AIAS) to improve our selection efficiency and accuracy.