Dr Yichen Kang joined SRA in 2024 as a plant breeder based in Burdekin after completing her PhD at The University of Queensland. She is now based at Meringa, where she oversees the sugarcane crossing program and early-generation breeding trials. She has extensive research experience in pre-breeding trait discovery and introgression, quantitative genetics, and the application of high-throughput phenotyping and genomics tools to crop improvement.