COURSE OVERVIEW:

Foundational level, designed for plant breeding, product development, agronomy, and seed professionals working in all areas, this foundational course covers topics in descriptive statistics, data visualization, distributions, correlation, regression, comparison tests, replicated experimental designs CRD, RCBD, single location, single-year analysis, and trial quality. R demos are included.

This course is recommended prerequisite for UC Davis Plant Breeding Academy.

INSTRUCTORS:

Alexandra Tomerius, Ph.D.
While earning her doctorate at the University of Hohenheim, Dr. Alexandra Tomerius worked in close cooperation with private industry plant breeding companies. She further devoted herself to the optimization of plant breeding as a post-graduate through early work as a research associate and later work as a freelance consultant. She was involved in projects related to the optimization of breeding winter wheat (Lochow-Petkus GmbH) and winter oilseed rape (DSV Deutsche Saatveredelung, Lippstadt). Since 2011, she has been and still is working for different private companies as a plant breeding consultant as well as giving training courses to academia and private industry in various fields of plant breeding, with a focus on statistics, field trial design, and breeding scheme optimization. 

Jovan Djordjevic, Ph.D.
Dr. Jovan Djordjevic is a plant breeder and entrepreneur with over 30 years of experience in the global seed industry. His career began in 1996 with Monsanto France as a corn breeder, where he built a strong foundation in hybrid breeding. In 2005, he moved to Canada to lead canola hybrid breeding, playing a key role in transitioning the crop from open-pollinated to hybrid varieties. In 2010, Jovan relocated to California—agriculture’s Silicon Valley—where he served as Global Cucurbits Breeding Director for Nunhems.
Over the course of his prolific career, he has contributed to the release of more than 200 hybrid varieties across crops such as corn, canola, tomato, pepper, sweet corn, watermelon, melon, cucumber, onion, carrot, and leek.
Jovan currently serves as Director of the UC Davis Plant Breeding Academy, where he mentors the next generation of breeders and seed professionals. He also chairs the Plant Breeding Committee for the California Seed Association.
He is a seed business owner, co-founder, and board director at Murray River Seed Co, where he remains hands-on in breeding watermelon and melon. He believes that passionate people, working closely with growers, can truly transform the produce industry for the better.

Questions? Contact us at sbc@ucdavis.edu.