Felipe Matías

Filipe Matias is the Lead in Phenomics and Enviromics at Syngenta Seeds LATAM. He utilizes drones to study how spectral reflectance information can be used to improve genetic gains in plant breeding and agricultural research. He has successfully evaluated thousands of field plots using his software FIELDimageR (https://github.com/OpenDroneMap/FIELDimageR) with experience working on corn, tropical grasses, potato, and wheat from different institutions around the world (Brazil, Portugal, and the USA). He has created a networking group called “PhenomeForce” which brings together experts to share information, collaborate and build partnerships. The goal of the group is to “make phenomics easy for everybody” (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJ_ZXrpzvmF4rgSI8W_inyQ). Matias grew up in the Cerrado area of Brazil working on a small family farm during the summers. He earned his bachelor’s degree in agronomy at the Federal University of Uberlandia, a Master of Science degree at São Paulo State University, and a doctorate in genetics and plant breeding at Luiz de Queiroz College of Agriculture at the University of São Paulo. He worked as a post-doctoral researcher at the University of Wisconsin and as a research scientist at the North Dakota State University, prior to moving to Syngenta. His interests are science communication, quantitative genetics, genomic selection, GWAS, phenomics, high-throughput phenotyping, remote sensing, image analysis, open-source tools, and R.