Growing Maize Under Glass: How a Marana, Arizona Greenhouse is Accelerating Bayer Crop Science’s Plant Breeding Programs

Join ASU alumnus Matt Lingard to learn about Bayer Crop Science's smart greenhouse facility in Marana, Ariz., aimed at driving tailored solutions for the future of agriculture. The greenhouses are part of Bayer’s effort to move new corn products through development faster so farmers around the world can benefit from the latest technology. This automated greenhouse facility is an important new investment supporting Bayer’s strategy for producing improved corn varieties for their farmer customers.

The Marana site is focused on seed production and agricultural innovation, leveraging the latest in automation to optimize plant density and workflow. At full capacity, the new greenhouse facility is expected to average three to four corn crop cycles per year.

Lingard is the lead of Bayer Crop Science’s new Marana Product Design Center. He previously led teams focused on the development of automated genotyping workflows, automated microscopy and cell-based assays. Before joining Bayer, he did a post-doc at Rice University studying plant genetics and earned a doctorate at ASU in plant cell biology.

Faculty and practitioners discuss their current research and field projects in the Science and Mathematics Colloquium Series, held throughout the academic year at ASU’s Polytechnic campus. All seminars are free and open to the public.