We are proud to announce the ten finalist teams in the US Department of Agriculture’s ARSX2024 Safeguarding Sources Challenge: The Quest to Sustain Genetic Diversity.
ARSX2024 tasked scientists and researchers to explore innovation across disciplines for fresh ideas and revolutionary approaches to sustain and enhance the genetic diversity of plants, animals, and microbes.
The ten finalist teams, in no particular order, are:
- Scan, Squish, and Ship for Biological Curation, Team Captain - Scott Geib
- Back to the Future: old genes for modern cows, Team Captain - Kaitlyn Sarlo Davila
- Bug Banking - Cryopreservation and Insemination, Team Captain - Courtney Grula
- Crowdsource Characterization for Genetic Resources, Team Captain - Sarah Dohle
- Team Genoplasm Diversity Framework, Team Captain - Nathan Grant
- The MAGIC Way to Revolutionize Peanut Diversity, Team Captain - Baozhu Guo
- What bee do I spy with my LiDAR eye?, Team Captain - Michael Goblirsch
- Safeguarding Germplasm in Admixture Seed Libraries, Team Captain - Christopher Gottschalk
- Diverse Genes, Robust Crops: Fortifying the future, Team Captain - Rachel Naegele
- Electron Technology to Maintain Genetic Diversity, Team Captain - Palmy Jesudhasan
The ten finalist teams have several weeks to participate in an innovation forum, refine their ideas, and build out their pitches. On Tuesday, September 24th, 2024, all teams will present their pitches to a panel of judges and an audience of their peers and colleagues. The day will culminate in a live, public virtual event where the judges will award $100,000 each to the top three teams.
Congratulations once again to our finalists!
