Aaron Lorenz, PhD

Associate Professor

Aaron Lorenz is an Associate Professor of Soybean Breeding and Genetics in the Department of Agronomy and Plant Genetics at the University of Minnesota. The University of Minnesota Soybean Breeding Program develops specialty, food-type, and general-use soybean varieties adapted to the Upper Midwest. Dr. Lorenz’s research focuses on the optimization and application of genomics and phenomics to an applied cultivar development program. Additional areas of research include the mapping of genes underlying complex traits relevant to soybean production, and the development of soybean varieties adapted to new cropping systems. Dr. Lorenz teaches introductory plant genetics and breeding to undergraduates, and advanced plant breeding to graduate students. He received a BS from the University of Minnesota in 2002, an MS in Plant Breeding from Iowa State in 2005, and a PhD in Plant Breeding and Plant Genetics from the University of Wisconsin in 2008. Following his PhD, he was a Postdoctoral Research Associate at Cornell University from 2009 to 2010 and an Assistant Professor at the University of Nebraska from 2010 to 2015. He joined the faculty of the University of Minnesota in 2015.