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Noah DeWitt joins the LSU AgCenter wheat breeding program. DeWitt is originally from North Florida and earned a Bachelor of Science in plant genetics from the University of Florida. He said his motivation in pursuing plant genetics came after watching Florida’s citrus industry struggle with major diseases. He received his doctorate in crop science and genetics at North Carolina State University working on understanding the relationship between wheat development and yield variation.
After earning his doctorate, he ran a U.S. Department of Agriculture wheat breeding program in Raleigh, North Carolina, focused on grain quality and rust resistance, along with coordinating regional wheat nursery trials.
He now helps run the wheat breeding and research program at the LSU AgCenter with Stephen Harrison. His work focuses on using genomic tools to understand genotype by environmental interactions and accelerating the rate of genetic gain for yield in wheat while improving plant disease resistance. As part of this program, he works on optimally incorporating DNA marker information on major disease-resistance genes into selection decisions, testing new models for environment-specific yield predictions, and coordinating with other members of SunGrains, the southern wheat breeding cooperative, to run trials for yield and disease resistance.
The LSU AgCenter and the LSU College of Agriculture
