Horticulture Innovators

Ph.D. student Mason Marshall and undergraduate student Trishia Nguyen discuss what influenced their decision to pursue Horticulture as well as what they wish to accomplish in the future in the field of horticulture. Mason Marshall is a PhD student in the department of horticulture. He is from Odessa, Texas and ventured to Texas A&M in 2017 for his bachelor's degree in horticulture. Currently in his third year, Mason's research aims to characterize the phenotypic variation in Ratibida col...

Prof. Arun Sharma received his Ph.D. in Life Sciences from Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), New Delhi, India, in 1987 after carrying out work on the regulation of nitrate assimilation by phytochrome in the laboratory of Prof. Sudhir Sopory. He performed post-doctoral work with Dr. G. Kumar at the School of Medicine, Yale University, New Haven, in 1998 and at Wayne State University, Detroit, from 1989 to 1991, in the area of DNA-protein interaction. He did post-doctoral work with Prof. Sudhi...

Dr. Haven Baker co-founded Pairwise and served as Chief Business Officer from 2017 to 2024. Under his leadership, Pairwise secured $ 110 M+ of funding, completed multiple crop development deals, and launched the first CRISPR product in North America. Haven is the former Senior Vice President / General Manager of Simplot Plant Sciences, where he led the team that launched the innovative, non-browning Innate® potato. He holds a PhD in chemistry from Northeastern University, an MBA from Harvard ...

Anna Caroline Ball is Chairman and CEO of the 119-year-old Ball Horticultural Company, which specializes in all aspects of horticulture, including breeding, biotechnology, production, and marketing of hybrid flower seeds and other floriculture crops. Privately-held and now in its fourth generation of family management, Ball Horticultural Company has 4,000 employees and operates in over 20 countries worldwide. Anna received her B.A. degree from the University of Colorado and her M.B.A. from N...

Dr. Steve George is a Professor and Extension Horticulturist, and Landscape Horticulture Specialist since 1988 for the Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service and is headquartered at the Texas A&M Research and Extension Center in north Dallas. Dr. George created the Earth-Kind® Environmental Landscape Management System and serves as the National Coordinator of the Earth-Kind® Rose Program.

Kait Thornton, 4th generation apple and pear grower from Tonasket, Washington. Along with college classes, fruit sales, and work on the farm, Kait spends her time educating her over 450,000 followers across social media on farming and what it’s like to be a farmer!

Lisa Whittlesey is an employee of Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service and received her bachelor and master’s degrees from Texas A&M University in horticulture with an emphasis in education/curriculum development. Lisa serves as the program director for the JMG’s International Junior Master Gardener program which currently operates in all 50 states and has expanded internationally through collaborative partnerships with the Borlaug Institute for International Agriculture, JMG Korea, ...