The Team
AIFS comprises over 100 researchers and leaders from six institutions to be inclusive, fostering collaborations to develop open-source AI solutions across the food system.
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Leadership
Ilias Tagkopoulos
Director and Principal Investigator
Mason Earles
Co-PI and Lead of Agricultural Production Cluster
Renata Ivanek
Executive Committee Member, Cornell Site Lead
Danielle Lemay
Executive Committee Member, USDA-ARS WHNC Site Lead, Lead of Nutrition Cluster
Xin Liu
Co-PI and Co-Lead of Use-Inspired and Foundational AI Cluster
Nitin Nitin
Co-PI and Lead of Food Processing and Distribution Cluster
Pamela Ronald
Executive Committee Member, Co-Lead of Workforce, Industrial, and Societal Engagement
Daniel Runcie
Executive Committee Member, Lead of Molecular Breeding Cluster
Justin Siegel
Executive Committee Member, Lead of Knowledge Transfer
Aaron Smith
Executive Committee Member, Lead of Socioeconomics and Ethics Cluster
Matt Stasiewicz
Executive Committee Member, UIUC Site Lead
Gabriel Youtsey
Executive Committee Member, UC-ANR Site Lead, Co-Lead of Workforce, Industrial, and Societal Engagement
Tarek Zohdi
Co-PI, Co-Lead of Food Production and Distribution Cluster, Co-Lead of Engagement
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Staff
Steve Brown
Associate Director of AIFS
Dalia Cervantes
AIVO Program Analyst
Phong Duong
Graphic Designer
Parisa Kafash
Project Policy Analyst
Kiran Kernellu
Communications and Marketing Coordinator, AIVO
John Leng
Web Portal Programmer
Lukas Masopust
Front-End Software Engineer
Ivor Prado
Grant and Science Writer
Kristin Singhasemanon
Head of Communications and Engagement
Camille Woods
AIVO Instructional Designer for AI Education
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Researchers
Rebecca Abergel
Assistant Professor, Nuclear Engineering, Chemistry, UC Berkeley
Nuclear Chemistry, Cellular Biology
Jayadev Acharya
Assistant Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Cornell University
Machine Learning, Algorithms
Shamim Ahamed
Assistant Professor of Biological and Agricultural Engineering, UC Davis
Controlled Environment Agricultural
Ana Arias
Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences, UC Berkeley
Flexible and Printed Electronics
Brian Bailey
Assistant Professor of Plant Sciences, UC Davis
Plant Modeling, Remote Sensing
Ellen Bonnel
Human Studies Manager, USDA Western Human Nutrition Research Center
Francesco Borrelli
Professor of Mechanical Engineering, UC Berkeley
Predictive Control
Charlie Brummer
Director and Professor, Center for Plant Breeding, UC Davis
Enhancing Crop Yields, Molecular Markers
Christine Diepenbrock
Assistant Professor of Plant Sciences, UC Davis
Crop Nutrition and Resilience
Lee Fleming
Coleman Fung Chair of Engineering Leadership, School of Engineering, UC Berkeley
Machine Learning, Social Science
Bruce German
Professor of Food Science and Technology, UC Davis
Diet, Health, Metabolism
Yufang Jin
Associate Professor of Land, Air, and Water Resources, UC Davis
Remote Sensing, Precision Agriculture, Machine Learning
Maggi Kelly
Professor of Environmental Science, Policy and Management, Geography, UC Berkeley
Remote Sensing, Geospatial Research
Isaya Kisekka
Associate Professor of Land, Air, and Water Resources, UC Davis
Sustainable Water Management
Steven Knapp
Professor and Director of the Strawberry Breeding Program, Department of Plant Sciences, UC Davis
Strawberry Breeding and Genomics
Zhaodan Kong
Associate Professor of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, UC Davis
Control Theory, Autonomous Systems
Jules Larke
Professional Researcher, Department of Nutrition, UC Davis
Machine Learning, Precision Nutrition
Carlito Lebrilla
Distinguished Professor of Chemistry, UC Davis
Mass Spectrometry, Cancer, Nutrition
Ethan Ligon
Associate Professor of Agricultural and Resource Economics, UC Berkeley
Applied Microeconomics
Troy Magney
Assistant Professor of Plant Sciences, UC Davis
Environmental Data Science, Sensor Development
David Mills
Professor of Food Science and Technology, UC Davis
Movelcular Biology, Bacteria
Ali Moghimi
Assistant Professor of Teaching, Biological and Agricultural Engineering, UC Davis
Remote Sensing and Applied AI
Khalid Mosalam
Professor of Civil Engineering, UC Berkeley
Structure Assessment, Simulations, Energy Efficiency
Mark Mueller
Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering, UC Berkeley
Unmanned Aerial Vehicles, Dynamics and Control
Simo Mäkiharju
Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering, UC Berkeley
Flow Optimization
Klara Nahrstedt
Swanlund Endowed Chair and Grainger Distinguished Chair in Engineering
Edge Systems, Secure Infrastructure
Hamed Pirsiavash
Associate Professor of Computer Science, UC Davis
Computer Vision, Machine Learning
Alireza Pourreza
Assistant CE Specialist of Agricultural Mechanization, Biological and Agricultural Engineering, UC Davis
Agricultural Robotics and Automation
James Sayre
Assistant Professor of Cooperative Extension, UC Davis
Agricultural Distribution
Chenhui Shao
Assistant Professor of Mechanical Science and Engineering, UIUC
Automated and Intelligent Manufacturing
Christopher Simmons
Associate Professor of Food Science and Technology, UC Davis
Reclaiming and Recycing Waste Biomass
Jennifer Smilowitz
UCD Human Studies Director, Foods for Health Institute, UC Davis
Clinical Nutrition, Lactation Research
Edward Spang
Assistant Professor of Food Science and Technology, UC Davis
Water, Energy, Food Systems
Charles Stephensen
Research Leader at the USDA Western Human Nutrition Research Center (WHNRC) in Davis, CA
Nutrition, Immune System, Vitamins
Dean Tantillo
Professor at UC Davis
Biosynthesis, Catalysis
Gail Taylor
Professor and Department Chair of Plant Sciences, UC Davis
Plant Adaptation
Allen Van Deynze
Director of Research Seed Biotechnology Center, Department of Plant Sciences, UC Davis
Disease Resistant Crop Breeding
Stavros Vougioukas
Associate Professor of Biological and Agricultural Engineering, UC Davis
Agricultural Robotic, Harvesting
Luxin Wang
Associate Professor of Food Science and Technology, UC Davis
Genomics, Foodborne Pathogens
Qiong Wang
Associate Professor of Industrial and Enterprise Systems Engineering, University of Illinois
Financial Engineering, Operations Research
Martin Wiedmann
Professor in Food Safety, Department of Food Science, Cornell University
Foodborne and Zoonotic Diseases
Mark Yarborough
Professor of Bioethics, UC Davis
Public Trust, Biomedical Research
Zhou Yu
Assistant Professor of Computer Science, UC Davis
NLP, Multimodal Analysis
Qing Zhao
Professor of Engineering, Cornell University
Sequential Decision Theory, Machine Learning
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Advisory Board Members
Vanessa Adams
Stakeholder Advisory Board
Henrik Geertz-Hansen
Industrial Advisory Board
Michael Goldman
Education and Outreach Advisory Board, Scientific Advisory Board
Katrin Kuhlmann
Stakeholder Advisory Board
Robert Powell
Chair, Education and Outreach Advisory Board, Scientific Advisory Board
Harold Schmitz
Chair, Industrial Advisory Board
Abigail Stevenson
Industrial Advisory Board
Wesley Wilson
Chair, Stakeholder Advisory Board
David Wishart
Education and Outreach Advisory Board, Scientific Advisory Board
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Postdoctoral Researchers
Carrie Alexander
Postdoctoral Researcher
Ece Bulut
Postdoctoral Researcher
Taeyeong Choi
Postdoctoral Researcher
Ahmed El-Moghazy
Postdoctoral Researcher
Zhenghao Fei
Postdoctoral Researcher
Yuqing Gao
Postdoctoral Researcher
Selim Gunay
Postdoctoral Researcher
Kieran Heeley
Postdoctoral Researcher
Chao Huang
Postdoctoral Researcher
Sarah Kakadellis
Postdoctoral Researcher
Shanghyeon Kim
Postdoctoral Researcher
Sarah I. Murphy
Postdoctoral Researcher
Chen Peng
Postdoctoral Researcher
Ashkan Zehfrooshan
Postdoctoral Researcher
Huanle Zhang
Postdoctoral Researcher
Xu Zhou
Postdoctoral Researcher
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Graduate Student Researchers
Ian Anderson
Graduate Student Researcher
Cecil Barnett-Neefs
Graduate Student Researcher
Carla Becker
Graduate Student Researcher
Omar Betancourt
Graduate Student Researcher
Sarah Blecksmith
Graduate Student Researcher
Yazmine Bouzid
Graduate Student Researcher
Momtanu Chakraborty
Graduate Student Researcher
Trevor Chan
Graduate Student Researcher
Mengyi Dong
Graduate Student Researcher
Jesus Fernandez Bayo
Graduate Student Researcher
Abelina Fuentes
Graduate Student Researcher
Tommy Hosmer
Graduate Student Researcher
Fan Hu
Graduate Student Researcher
Roger Isied
Graduate Student Researcher
Minjae Jeon
Graduate Student Researcher
YeonJin Jung
Graduate Student Researcher
Linda Kalunga
Graduate Student Researcher
Hamid Kamangir
Graduate Student Researcher
Erin Kealey
Graduate Student Researcher
Yoonbin Kim
Graduate Student Researcher
Lucas Lahann
Graduate Student Researcher
Fangzhou Li
Graduate Student Researcher
Ze-Xuan Liu
Graduate Student Researcher
Yuhan Liu
Graduate Student Researcher
Yongshuai Liu
Graduate Student Researcher
Manan Mehta
Graduate Student Researcher
Fanyu Meng
Graduate Student Researcher
Emre Mengi
Graduate Student Researcher
Christian Millsop
Graduate Student Researcher
Tu Nguyen
Graduate Student Researcher
Floyid Nicolas
Graduate Student Researcher
Alexander Olenskyj
Graduate Student Researcher
Allison O’Brien
Graduate Student Researcher
Luke Qian
Graduate Student Researcher
Andy Rodriguez
Graduate Student Researcher
Sudeep Salgia
Graduate Student Researcher
Peter Savchik
Graduate Student Researcher
Mostafa Sedky
Graduate Student Researcher
Gabriel Simmons
Graduate Student Researcher
Zhehan Tang
Graduate Student Researcher
Mariana Larrañaga Tapia
Graduate Student Researcher
Xiaoxiao Wang
Graduate Student Researcher
Ting-Hao Wang
Graduate Student Researcher
Teaya Yang
Graduate Student Researcher
Arielle Yoo
Jason Youn
Graduate Student Researcher
Shao-Yi Yu
Graduate Student Researcher
Jiaming Zha
Graduate Student Researcher
Tony Zheng
Graduate Student Researcher
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Alumni
Ashley Balley
Education, Outreach, and Workforce Coordinator
Hanna Bartram
Education and Public Engagement Coordinator
Payton Goodrich
Graduate Student Researcher
Sehong Kang
Graduate Student Researcher
Luyao Ma
Postdoctoral Researcher
Christie Waisum Ng
AIFS Program Assistant
Georgiana Prevost
AIVO Community Engagement and Logistics Coordinator
Ginger Welsh
Communication and Marketing Coordinator
Jiyoon Yi
Postdoctoral Researcher
