Natalia is a professor in the Department of Agronomy, current chair of the Plant Breeding and Plant Genetics program at the University of Wisconsin, Madison and she leads the Maize GXE project within the Genomes to Fields (www.genomes2fields.org) Initiative. Natalia received her MS and PhD in Plant Breeding and Plant Genetics from the University of Wisconsin, Madison followed by a postdoctoral experience at Michigan State University. She then worked in the commercial sector for approximately three years before moving to the University of Wisconsin as a faculty member. The goal of her research is to identify efficient mechanisms to better understand the genetic constitution of economically relevant traits and to improve plant breeding efficiency.