Dr. Henry T. Nguyen is the University of Missouri Curators’ Distinguished Professor of Genetics and Biotechnology. He served as Director of the National Center for Soybean Biotechnology established by the United States Congress from 2004 to 2016. Prior to the current position, Dr. Nguyen was a professor of genetics at Texas Tech University and Texas A&M University System for 18 years. The Board of Regents at Texas Tech University awarded him the Paul Whitfield Horn distinguished professorship. He has a distinguished career in plant genetics and biotechnology research and teaching and is internationally recognized for his work on plant adaptation to stress environment and crop resilience. His research team conducts genetic analysis of abiotic stress tolerance, disease resistance and value-added traits and applies molecular marker technology to crop improvement. Dr. Nguyen has gained recognition through many awards such as the National Science Foundation’s Presidential Young Investigator Award and Texas Tech’s Presidential Award and Teaching Academy. He has been invited to present seminars and speak at national and international conferences in more than 35 countries. He was elected as Fellow of the Crop Science Society of America, Fellow of the American Society of Agronomy, and Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Dr. Nguyen was an elected Vice President of the Global Plant Council. He served as Chair of the Molecular Genetics, Genomics, and Biotechnology Division of the Crop Science Society of America and member of the Board of Directors of the CSSA. He has edited 6 books and served on several editorial boards and published more than 285 refereed articles and 40 book chapters. He chairs the Abiotic Stress Workshop and co-chair the Crop Genomics for Global Food Security at the International Plant and Animal Genome Conference. In 2018, he received a lifetime achievement Crop Science ResearchAward from the Crop Science Society of America.