Dr. Kendall Lamkey

Kendall R. Lamkey began his tenure as the Associate Dean for Facilities and Operations (ADFO) for the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at Iowa State University on May 16, 2023.

Previously, Dr. Lamkey served as interim-chair (2006) and chair (2007-2023) for the Department of Agronomy at Iowa State University. In that role, he provided leadership and direction to the department in the areas of education, research, and extension.

He earned his B.S. and M.S. degrees from the University of Illinois and his Ph.D. degree from Iowa State University in plant breeding and genetics.

Dr. Lamkey’s research focused on corn breeding with an emphasis on the quantitative genetics of selection response, inbreeding depression and heterosis. Dr. Lamkey has served on the advisory board for Makerere University Regional Center of Excellence in Crop Improvement (MaRCCI), Kampala, Uganda since 2018. Dr. Lamkey has been involved in the gates funded project Plant Breeding Education for Africa (PBEA). One of Dr. Lamkey’s current interests is cropping systems models such as APSIM and how to account for genetic changes in cultivars overtime in these models.
Dr. Lamkey has authored or co-authored 81 refereed journal articles and numerous papers in conference proceedings, book chapters, published abstracts, and technical research reports. Dr. Lamkey has been active in graduate education at Iowa State University and has served as major advisor for 18 Ph.D. students and 10 M.S. students and has served on the program of study committee for more than 80 M.S. and Ph.D. students.

Dr. Lamkey is a fellow of the American Society of Agronomy and the Crop Science Society of America and has served as an associate editor, technical editor, and editor for Crop Science.

Gomiero Polli, Estefania

Estefania earned a B.S. in Agronomy from the University of São Paulo in 2017. She then pursued an M.S. in Agronomy at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, completing her degree in 2021. That same year, she started her Ph.D. program in Crop Science at North Carolina State University, completing her degree in 2024. Her M.S. and Ph.D. research focused on weed science, with particular emphasis on herbicide application technology, herbicide resistance, and pesticide behavior and environmental fate, integrating laboratory, greenhouse, and field-based approaches to evaluate herbicide performance and off-target movement. As a Postdoctoral Research Associate, her work continues to focus on weed science, with emphasis on weed ecology, herbicide resistance, integrated weed management, and application technology. Her research aims to develop sustainable, science-based weed management strategies to optimize herbicide performance, improve application efficiency, and reduce environmental risk.