I am originally from Senegal, where I did my undergraduate studies in Applied Biology and Plant Agro-resources. During and after my undergraduate I worked as an intern and lab technician at the Senegalese Institute for Agricultural Research. Then I did my PhD in Plant Genetics at University of California, Riverside! My research interests lie in crop domestication, crop diversity, crop improvement, and development of genetic and genomic resources. I have worked on the genetic basis of domestication-related traits in cowpea including flowering time, seed size, and pod shattering.

Now, I am working on a project to develop artificial intelligence (AI)-enabled, 3-D biophysical modeling frameworks that are integrated with genomics, to accelerate modern plant breeding pipelines for sorghum, common bean, and cowpea.