My name is Christopher Barron, and I am currently a first-year graduate student at Purdue University pursuing a PhD in Plant Breeding. I graduated from Texas A&M University in May 2024 with a B.S. in Plant and Environmental Soil Science and a B.S. in Biochemistry. My current research is focused on using predictive breeding in maize and sorghum to improve yield and other important agronomic traits. Additionally, my work is aimed to better understand how these models can be used to estimate genotype by environment interactions and predict plant performance in unknown or untested environments. I am also working to understand how to best parameterize raw environmental data and what environmental variables yield the greatest improvement in model accuracy. In addition to this research, I am researching a new method for sorghum transformation. Finally, I am also working on analyzing data to identify trends in crop physiological traits over time to understand yield stability and stress tolerance. Learning what specific trait changes have contributed to these changes will allow breeders to more effectively target stress tolerance in future breeding efforts. Outside of my research, I enjoy gardening, which started my original interest in agriculture, and cooking and baking.