My name is Jeremy Sutherland. I have spent much of my career at the intersection of biology and computer science. I received my Ph.D. in Bioinformatics and Genomics from Penn State University in May, 2023. My research combined plant genetic data with microbial and environmental data to improve environmental sustainability and yield in switchgrass – a potential bio-energy crop. Much of my graduate work required the use of remote high-performance computing environments to perform multivariate statistical analyses. I have proficiency in a variety of statistical modeling and genetic sequence data analysis using numerous programming languages (i.e., Python, R, Bash). I excel at optimizing computational pipelines to improve reproducibility. I recently completed a summer postdoctoral fellowship with the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science in Tokyo, where I studied plant virology and integrated pest management strategies for the biological control of plant disease in sustainable agriculture systems. I’m currently a postdoctoral scholar at Penn State University examining the genomics and evolutionary ecology of plant-microbe interactions in agroecosystems.

Prior to my graduate work, I was a research assistant for the United States Department of Agriculture APHIS-PPQ division. During my time at USDA, I developed and validated molecular methods for diagnosing regulatory plant pathogens. I developed in-house bioinformatics pipelines for the identification of molecular markers for species-specific fungal pathogen detection. My achievements at USDA are underscored by the implementation of my diagnostic test to safeguard U.S. agriculture at scale. As an undergraduate at the University of Illinois at Chicago, I studied the role of herbivory and environmental restoration on the population structure of native plant populations at both my university and the Chicago Botanic Garden.

In 2019, I was president of the Science Policy Society at Penn State. As president, I accepted the Student Leader Award from the university for my science communication initiatives. In 2020, I became a fellow at the Foundation for Food and Agriculture Research (FFAR). The FFAR Fellows Program is a prestigious training program focused on building science communication, networking, and leadership skills. I cultivated a diverse network of scientists and science policy specialists to serve as my fellowship mentors. Concurrently, I served as an Agriculture Policy Intern with Pasa Sustainable Agriculture. During this time, I worked with Pasa’s policy strategist to promote and advocate for state and federal sustainable agriculture policy initiatives through direct engagement with decision-makers. Pasa co-sponsored my FFAR fellowship.

I am an award-winning researcher and student. I received the Elmer Hadley Award for my undergraduate research thesis and the B.J. Hoddinott Scholarship for my academic achievements. I received the Student Leader Scholarship from Penn State for my work as president of the Science Policy Society and a nomination for Outstanding Officer of the Year. I won the FFAR Fellows Professional Development Scholarship and FFAR’s annual lighting talk competition (2021). In addition to these, I have won multiple travel grants to attend research conferences and meetings.