Marjorie Hanneman is a Ph.D. candidate in Plant Breeding and Genetics at Cornell University, completing her dissertation entitled The Genomics and Phenomics of Grain Quality Traits for Consumers. Her research integrates molecular genetics, spectroscopy, and data science to understand how genetic diversity shapes the sensory and nutritional qualities of cereal grains. In maize, she has applied quantitative genetic approaches to map variation in vitamin B3 (niacin) content and used CRISPR-based validation to confirm gene function, connecting genotype to nutritional phenotype. 

Additionally, she focuses on developing portable near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) tools for phenotypic prediction, enabling rapid, non-destructive assessment of grain quality traits across breeding programs. She also examines consumer preferences for sorghum and millets, linking sensory, cultural, and market perspectives with breeding priorities to make crop improvement more demand-driven. Marjorie is passionate about aligning crop improvement with the values and needs of the people who grow and eat these grains. She enjoys the variety in her work, which spans genomics, statistics, and social science, and values the collaborative, interdisciplinary nature of agricultural research. 

Marjorie attended Iowa State University for her undergraduate degree, double majoring in Agronomy and Genetics. There, she discovered her passion for research, working in various plant genetics labs. Marjorie is originally from Milwaukee, WI.