Sarah Hearne is the director of the Genetic Resources Program a.i. at CIMMYT, which focuses on translating and supporting the translation of crop genetic potential into seed-based innovations, underpinning climate resilient, sustainable, and inclusive agricultural development for a food and nutrition secure future.
Hearne’s research focuses on identifying and “upcycling” breeder-relevant genetic variation for broader crop improvement applications. Working with great teams she explores, harnesses, re-combines, and develops approaches in the areas of genomics, breeding strategy, informatics and biometrics, aiming to leverage data synergies and more efficiently and effectively identify and use genetic variation in breeding, through partnership, delivering a demanded product to farmers in an efficient, effective and equity focused way.
Scaling this learning across food crops, Hearne leads the multi-species Allele Mining projects and work packages of the Accelerated Breeding Initiative of the CGIAR.
Gender equality, youth and social inclusion 
