Carlos Messina

Carlos Messina is Professor in the Department of Horticultural Sciences at the University of Florida, and Director of the UF/IFAS Crop Transformation Center. He received his PhD from the University of Florida. He worked in industry where he contributed to the development of drought tolerant maize in the US and Brazil, which is now grown in >10MM acres, led the initiative on Circular Agriculture, and led a team that develop a probabilistic programming approach to improve genetic prediction for complex systems. His teaching and research program focuses on how to harmonize crop improvement and AI efforts for agricultural systems to regenerate the environment while providing nutrition security, improve human health and adapt to climate change. He leads a team that develops prediction methods by harnessing principles of crop science, dynamical systems modeling and complex systems theory. He leads a transdisciplinary team to deliver improved cultivars and solutions to farmers and healthy foods to consumers.