Welcome Dr. Stephen Baluch

Dr. Baluch joined the Department of Crop and Soil Science as Assistant Professor - Hemp Breeding on July 1, 2022. He received his M.S. from the University of Minnesota and Ph.D. from Purdue studying plant breeding and molecular genetics in barley and wheat respectively. After graduate school he worked as a corn breeder for five years for Monsanto in Williamsburg, Iowa. Departing Monsanto in 2013, he worked for Dow Agrosciences as a corn breeder in Champaign, Illinois. In 2016 he moved to Oregon and began breeding recreational/medical cannabis for Phylos Biosciences and then for a partnership between two production farms. After three years working in that space he saw an opportunity to move to hemp and is now on his fourth year breeding in the hemp industry. His last position before joining OSU was as director of breeding for Arcadia Biosciences where he led breeding efforts in both hemp and wheat.

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