Curriculum Vitae

Curriculum Vitae

I graduated from Iowa State University with a B.S. degree in Agronomy and obtained a master’s degree in Plant Breeding and Genetics from Wageningen University in the Netherlands. Afterwards, I conducted Ph.D. research on the source-sink relationship of wheat at the University of Lleida in Spain and worked at the University of Guelph in Canada as a post-doctoral researcher. Currently, I am continuing my postdoctoral research at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. My current interests encompass crop physiology, specifically the source-sink relationship, nitrogen use efficiency, farming systems, and more, utilizing various statistical and data tools. I am also fascinated by phenotypic plasticity and plant adaptation to environmental changes. Additionally, I have a strong interest in programming, particularly in R and Python for data science, as well as advanced SQL for big data analysis.

■ Google scholar
■ Github
■ Youtube Channel

■ Research group

■ Current

• DiTommaso Lab, Cornell University, USA

■ Past

• DKLEE Lab, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, USA
• NORTHERN AND EASTERN ONTARIO AGRONOMY RESEARCH GROUP (NEO-AG), University of Guelph, Canada
• Crop Physiology Group, University of Lleida, Spain

■ Careers

• 2025 ~ current, Postdoctoral Research Associate, Cornell University, USA
• 2023 ~ 2024, Postdoctoral Research Associate, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, USA (link)
• 2022 ~ 2023, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, University of Guelph, Canada
• 2013 ~ 2014, Fertilizer product manager (PM), KG Chemical, South Korea
• 2009 ~ 2013, Seed production/vigor specialist, Farm Hannong, South Korea
• 2007, Field research technician, Iowa State University, USA

■ Degrees

• Ph.D, 2022, University of Lleida (Crop Science), Spain (Cum Laude)
• MSc., 2017, Wageningen University (Plant Breeding and Genetics), Netherlands (Excellent)
• BSc., 2007, Iowa State University (Agronomy), USA (3+1 Dual Degree Program)
• BSc., 2007, Yeungnam University (Plant Science), South Korea (3+1 Dual Degree Program)

■ Research experiences

• Postdoctoral research. University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, USA. June. 2023 ~ current
Sustainably Co-locating Agricultural and Photovoltaic Electricity Systems (link)

• Postdoctoral research. University of Guelph, Canada. May. 2022 ~ May. 2023
4R management for late nitrogen applications in corn (link)

• Doctoral research. University of Lleida, Spain. Feb. 2018 ~ Dec. 2021
Physiology of genotypic differences in wheat grain weight among elite cultivars of contrasting grain number under contrasting N conditions or exposed to heat (link)

• MSc research. Wageningen University, Netherlands. Nov. 2016 ~ Mar. 2017
Composite cross populations (CCPs) of Winter wheat under low-input farming systems in the Netherlands: G x E interaction, Adaptability and Stability of yield over years (link)

• Maize field research assistant. Iowa State University, USA. Feb. 2007 ~ Oct. 2007

■ Papers

2024

■ Kang, J., Drury, C.F., Calder, W., Melenhorst, B., Lauzon, J., Kim, J. and Nasielski, J., 2024. A simple and accurate Dosi-Tube method for estimating ammonia loss from in-season nitrogen application in corn fields. Canadian Journal of Soil Science. https://cdnsciencepub.com/doi/abs/10.1139/cjss-2024-0052

■ Miljkovic, N., Du, X., Solecki, A., Garimella, V.S., Jia, M., Peng, B., Mwebaze, P., McCall, J., Majeed, F., Time, A. and Kim, J., 2024. Advancing Agrivoltaics through a Systematic Design Framework: Guidelines for Integration and Informed Decision-Making. https://www.researchsquare.com/article/rs-4791170/v1

■ Jang, C., Lee, J.W., Namoi, N., Kim, J., Lee, M.-S., Crozier, D., Yang, W., Rooney, W. and Lee, D.K., 2024. Optimizing bioenergy sorghum productivity and nutrient removal in Illinois: Impact of nitrogen fertilization under diverse marginal conditions. Field Crops Research, 315, p.109475.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0378429024002284

■ Kim, J., Sullivan, P., Caldwell, L., Downey, J., Hooker, D. C., & Nasielski, J. (2024). Kernel number and kernel weight stability can vary across corn hybrids. Agronomy Journal, 1-12. 
https://acsess.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/agj2.21640

■ Kim, J., Savin, R. and Slafer, G.A., 2024. Quantifying pre-and post-anthesis heat waves on grain number and grain weight of contrasting wheat cultivars. Field Crops Research, 307, p.109264.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0378429024000170

2023

■ Studhalter, M., Janovicek, K., Kim, J., Byker, H., Mountain, N. and Nasielski, J., 2023. Row spacing, seeding depth, seeding rate, and trinexapac‐ethyl effects on oat yield and lodging. Crop Science, 63(4), pp.2509-2523.
https://acsess.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/csc2.21021

2022

■ Kim, J., Physiology of genotypic differences in wheat grain weight among elite cultivars of contrasting grain number under contrasting N conditions or exposed to heat (Doctoral dissertation, Universitat de Lleida).
https://www.tdx.cat/bitstream/handle/10803/673878/Tjk1de1.pdf?sequence=2&isAllowed=y

2021

■ Kim, J., Slafer, G.A. and Savin, R., 2021. Are portable polyethylene tents reliable for imposing heat treatments in field-grown wheat? Field Crops Research, 271, p.108206.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0378429021001520

■ Kim, J., Savin, R. and Slafer, G.A., 2021. Weight of individual wheat grains estimated from high-throughput digital images of grain area. European Journal of Agronomy, 124, p.126237.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1161030121000095

2020

■ Sanchez-Bragado, R., Kim, J.W., Rivera-Amado, C., Molero, G., Araus, J.L., Savin, R. and Slafer, G.A., 2020. Are awns truly relevant for wheat yields? A study of performance of awned/awnless isogenic lines and their response to source–sink manipulations. Field Crops Research, 254, p.107827.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0378429019320970

■ Membership

  • 2022.06 – current, Membership in Crop Science Society of America (CSSA)
  • 2022.05 – current, Membership in The Association of Korean-Canadian Scientists and Engineers (AKCSE), Canada
  • 2018.03 – 2021.12, Membership in Association des Scientifiques Coréens en France (ASCOF), Spain
  • 2016.03 – 2017.04, Membership in Korean Scientists & Engineers Association in the Netherlands (KOSEANL), Netherlands
  • 2013.06 – 2016.05, Germination Technical Committee in ISTA (International Seed Testing Association)

■ R package development

□ fwrmodel() package (GitHub – agronomy4future/fwrmodel)
to calculate slope for genotypes across environments to suggest stability (or adaptability) using Finlay- Wilkinson Regression Model.

□ probdistz() package (GitHub – agronomy4future/probdistz)
to calculate the probability density function (PDF), cumulative density function (CDF), and Z-scores for specified yield columns in a dataset, optionally generating smoothed data.

□ kimindex() package (GitHub – agronomy4future/kimindex)
to predict grain weight (mg) from area (mm2) in bread wheat.

□ gdds() package (GitHub – agronomy4future/gdds)
to calculate Growing Degree Days (GDDs, ºCd).

■ Activities

▪ Guest lecture

  • AGR3450 / Research Methods in Agricultural Sciences (University of Guelph)
    – Goodness of Fit of a linear regression model (Nov 2022)
  • CROP3300 / Cereal Grain Crops (University of Guelph)
    – Physiology of Wheat Yield (March 2023)
  • CPSC593 / Adv Studies in Crop Sciences (University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign)
    – How to quantify field-level agricultural carbon outcomes? (Jan 2024)

▪ Online lecture and interviews

  • Analysis of split-(spilt)-plot design in the agronomy research using JMP (a lecture in Korean) (click)
    – Discovery Summit Korea 2021 – JMP Korea.
  • Measuring nitrogen volatilization loss in the field (click)
    – RealAgriculture Corn School
  • Solar Farm 2.0 SCAPES Crops Research (click)
    – Institute for Sustainability, Energy, and Environment at the University of Illinois

▪ Project

  • Yield and economic analysis for alfalfa sulphur experiment in North-West Ontario
    – Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs (Jan 2023)

– Conferences

▪ ASA, CSSA, SSSA International Annual Meeting – Nov 2024. San Antonio, TX, USA. – Oral presentation: Shading Impacts on Sorghum and Soybean Grain Yields Under Agrivoltaic Systems: Source-Sink Strength in Response to Shading (https://scisoc.confex.com/scisoc/2024am/meetingapp.cgi/Paper/158780).

▪ AgriVoltaics World Conference 2024 – June 2024. Denver, CO, USA. – Oral presentation: Impacts of Solar Panel Shading on Sorghum and Soybean Productivity: A Source-Sink Ratio Perspective.

▪ ASA, CSSA, SSSA International Annual Meeting – Oct 2023. St Louis, MO, USA.

▪ ASA, CSSA, SSSA International Annual Meeting – Nov 2022. Baltimore, MD, USA. – Oral presentation: Grain Number and Average Grain Weight Response to Heat Waves and Source-Sink Ratio in Field Grown Contrasting Wheat Genotypes (https://scisoc.confex.com/scisoc/2022am/meetingapp.cgi/Paper/144520).

▪ The Fourth Spanish Symposium on Cereal Physiology and Breeding (SEFiMeC) – Dec 2021. Pamplona, Spain. – Oral presentation: Physiological bases of grain number and weight response to heat waves in contrasting wheat cultivars under field conditions.

▪ XXIV Meeting of the Spanish Society of Plant Biology and the XVII Spanish Portuguese Congress on Plant Biology, Vigo, Spain (Online), July. 2021. – Poster presentation: Physiological bases of grain number and weight response to heat waves in contrasting wheat cultivars under field conditions.

▪ The Third Spanish Symposium on Cereal Physiology and Breeding (SEFiMeC) – Nov 2020. Pamplona, Spain (Online). Flash Talk 1: Are polyethylene portable chambers a trustable method to increase temperature in field experiments? Flash Talk 2: Grain number and average grain weight response to heat waves in field grown contrasting wheat genotypes.

▪ 16 edition of the congress of the European society for agronomy (ESA) – Sep 2020. Seville, Spain (Online). – Oral presentation: Plasticity of grain number and average grain weight in response to heat waves and source-sink ratio in field grown wheat.

▪ The Spring conference of Association des Scientifiques Coréens en France (ASCoF) – April 2019. Lyon, France. – Oral presentation: Source-sink balance determining the interrelationship between average grain weight and grain number in elite wheat.

▪ The Second Spanish Symposium on Cereal Physiology and Breeding (SEFiMeC) – March 2019. Córdoba, Spain. – Poster presentation: Source-sink balance determining the interrelationship between average grain weight and grain number in elite wheat.

▪ The First Spanish Symposium on Cereal Physiology and Breeding (SEFiMeC) – April 2018. Zaragoza, Spain. – Poster presentation: Composite Cross Populations (CCPs) of wheat: The intensive use of genetic variation in the future wheat breeding.

▪ 8th Euro-Korean Conference on Science and Technology 2015 – July 2015. Strasbourg, France.

▪ 30th ISTA Seed Congress – June 2013. Antalya, Turkey.