Hong Lu, PhD, Principal investigator, specializes in maize genetics and breeding, molecular breeding, molecular marker technologies, and lab automation. Hong received his BS and MS degrees from Huazhong Agriculture University in Wuhan, China, and PhD degree from Purdue University in West Lafayette, IN, USA. He conducted postdoc research in Cornell University. Hong joined DuPont-Pioneer in Johnston, IA as a research scientist, leading a high throughput molecular marker lab, then he returned back to Beijing  as Head of Corn Breeding for Syngenta China. He worked shortly for KWS China as COO in charge of JV establishment as operations. In 2013, Hong as founder and CEO started China Golden Marker Biotech Co., Ltd., which is a pioneer biotech company in China, providing genotyping and molecular breeding services to seed breeding community. In November 2021, Hong joined AGIS as PI with research focus on maize breeding and technology development.