Patrick S. Schnable is a distinguished professor at Iowa State University where he holds an endowed chair in genetics and is an endowed scholar in agricultural entrepreneurship. Schnable directs ISU's Plant Sciences Institute and serves as the founding director of ISU's Center for Plant Genomics. He is also a ChangJiang Scholar Professor at China Agriculture University in Beijing. Schnable received his BS from Cornell University and was awarded a PhD in Plant Breeding and Genetics from Iowa State University. Prior to his faculty appointment Schnable conducted post-doctoral research at the Max Planck Institute for Plant Breeding in Köln, Germany.