People
Antonio Augusto Franco Garcia
Augusto is the Faculty responsible for the Lab. He is also responsible for maintaining this web page. His professional web page is http://augusto-garcia.github.io/. For more information about him on the web, check his about.me page.
Augusto’s research goals include having a better understanding of the genetic architecture of quantitative traits, through linkage and QTL mapping, association mapping, and genomic selection. Most of his activities involve sugarcane, a complex autopolyploid species that does not fully benefit from molecular markers technology, but many other plant species have also been studied.
He is also an enthusiastic of free software, and has been using Linux for many years. He strongly supports and encourage the usage of R, Emacs, LaTeX, and git, among many other software and tools.
“Statistical Genetics is about develop models to have a better understanding of genetic data, under (somehow) realistic assumptions about the involved phenomena”.
Postdocs
Kaio Olímpio das Graças Dias (by himself)
Kaio has an undergraduate degree in Agronomy (2010) and Master degree (2013) and PhD (2016) in Genetics and Plant Breeding at Federal University of Lavras (UFLA). 
In 2010, he was at University of Minnesota as a trainee. As PhD candidate, he was a visitor Scholar at University of Florida in 2015, working in a statistical-genetics model for genotype-by-environment interaction for genome wide selection analysis. He has experience in plant breeding, quantitative genetics, linear mixed models and genome wide selection. His currently work is about quantitative genetics, linear mixed model and bayesian approach applied to plant breeding. For more information about Kaio, please visit his Lattes CV.
Letícia Aparecida de Castro Lara (by herself)
Letícia has a PhD at Department of Genetics of the University of São Paulo (ESALQ/USP). 
She has an undergraduate degree in Biology and Master degree in Genetics and Plant Breeding at Federal University of Lavras (UFLA). During her undergraduate and master, she worked with molecular genetics focusing on identification of QTL for disease resistance in common bean. In her PhD, she worked with development of statistical models in genomic selection considering allelic dosage for autotetraploid species, with applications in Panicum maximum. In her internship, she was supervised by Professor Zhao-Bang Zeng at North Carolina State University (NCSU, USA) where she compared the accuracy of prediction models using diploid dosage and tetraploid dosage. She has concentrated her studies in Quantitative Genetics of polyploids, Computing for Statistical Genetics (especially in R software) and Mixed Models. For more information about Leticia, please visit her Lattes CV
PhD Students
Cristiane Hayumi Taniguti (by herself)
Cristiane is Master in Genetics and Plant Breeding (ESALQ/USP) and PhD candidate in Genetics and Plant Breeding at “Luiz de Queiroz” College of Agriculture, University of São Paulo (ESALQ/USP). She has an undergraduate degree in Biotechnology by Federal University of São Carlos (UFSCar). 
She has interest in study computational tools and statistical methods for plant breeding related with molecular biology and quantitative genetics. Currently, her research involves the study of genetic architecture of quantitative traits in outcrossing species by linkage map and QTLs mapping using SNP markers, focusing in eucalypts. Her project has partnership with the enterprise Suzano. For more information about Cristiane, please visit her Lattes CV.
Gabriel de Siqueira Gesteira (by himself)
Gabriel is a PhD candidate in Genetics and Plant Breeding at “Luiz de Queiroz” College of Agriculture, University of São Paulo (ESALQ/USP). He is Agronomist and has a MSc degree in Genetics and Plant Breeding, by Federal University of Lavras (UFLA). 
During his undergraduate and Master degrees he worked out with soybean breeding, focusing in early cultivars development and evaluation, quantitative genetics and studies about quantitative traits association. Nowadays, Gabriel is interested in quantitative genetics, genomic selection, genome-wide association studies and development of statistical methods for plant breeding. For more information about Gabriel, please visit his Lattes CV.
Jhonathan Pedroso Rigal dos Santos (by himself)
Jhonathan is is an Agronomist (Maringá State University), Master in Genetics and Plant Breeding (Federal University of Lavras) PhD candidate at Department of Genetics of the University of São Paulo (ESALQ/USP). 
He has experience with maize breeding (intern at Monsanto), development of genetic mixed models and application of Genomic Selection to maize breeding (Federal University of Lavras). Nowadays, he is developing and evaluating Bayesian genetic models using a model-based machine learning approach via Bayesian Networks to analyse phenotypic data from sorghum growth traits collected through time (temporal series) coupled with functional-genome sequencing information (Colaboration, Cornell University - Prof. Dr. Michael Gore). He is interested in quantative genetics, genomic selection, Bayesian models and probabilistic programming (Stan, PyMC3, JAGS, Infer.NET) tools. For more information about Jhonathan, please visit her Lattes CV.
Rafael Storto Nalin (by himself)
Rafael is a PhD Candidate in Genetics and Plant Breeding at University of São Paulo (ESALQ/USP). He has a Master degree in the same area by Federal University of Lavras and undergraduate degree in Agronomy by Federal Institute of Mato Grosso. 
His currently research focus on simulate different strategies in a breeding program of autogamous species to improve selection accuracy. Highlighting evaluation of early generations to select progenies in advanced cycles and also genomic selection aiming to identify promising biparental populations. His main interest are quantitative genetics, mixed model, genomic selection and programming, especially in R and C/C++. For more information about Rafael, please visit his Lattes CV.
MSc Students
Camila Godoy dos Santos (by herself)
Camila is an Agronomist (Federal University of Uberlândia) and Master’s Student in Genetics and Plant Breeding at the University of São Paulo (ESALQ / USP). 
During her undergraduate, she had a three-year internship in a Cotton Breeding Program, working with genetic diversity and microsatellite markers. Currently, Camila is interested in quantitative genetics, genomic selection and development of statistical methods for plant breeding. For more information about Camila, please visit her Lattes CV.
Matheus Dalsente Krause (by himself)
Matheus is an Agricultural Technician (La Salle Agro), an Agronomist (State University of Londrina), and a Master’s Student in Genetics and Plant Breeding of the University of São Paulo (ESALQ/USP). 
During his undergraduate, he had a four-year internship at Laboratory of Maize Breeding, working in classical breeding as development of inbred lines, hybrids, synthetic populations, sweet maize breeding and Doubled-Haploid technology. In addition, he did the specialization (European Master Degree) “Plant Breeding & Engineering for Mediterranean and Tropical Areas” as an exchange student (BRAFAGRI program, 2013-2014) at SupAgro, in Montpellier/France. For more information about Matheus, please visit his Lattes CV.
Undergraduated students
Jéssica Carolina Zilio (by herself)
Jéssica is an undergraduate student in Agricultural Engineering at “Luiz de Queiroz” College of Agriculture (ESALQ/USP). 
Currently she is doing a Scientific Initiation (CNPq) with the project “Development of methods for selecting redundant molecular markers in genomic selection procedures”. For more information about Jéssica, please visit her Lattes CV. For more information about Jéssica, please visit her Lattes CV.