James Schnable

James Schnable holds the Nebraska Corn Presidential Chair and is a professor of agronomy and horticulture at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, where his research focuses on maize and sorghum genomics, genetics and genotype-by-environment interaction. He has pioneered work on the complete mapping of the corn genome and a dramatically expedited process for identifying corn gene functions, and he leads a current project to develop the first digital twin of a cornfield; he has also helped found three startups commercializing bioinformatic, quantitative genetic and digital agricultural technologies. In 2026 he received the National Academy of Sciences Prize in Food and Agriculture Sciences, becoming the youngest researcher to receive the award.