Samuel Crowell joined ASTA in 2022. Prior to ASTA, Sam served in the U.S. government in positions within the U.S. Department of State, Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR), and U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). In these roles, he was a proud advocate for U.S. agriculture and led on negotiations and initiatives related to food security, trade, regulatory, and science policy issues. Sam grew up in West Virginia and holds a Ph.D. in the plant sciences and international development from Cornell University, where he conducted field work on rice germplasm, genomics, and high-throughput phenotyping at the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) in Los Baños, Philippines.