Jess Brian Alvariño

Jess holds a bachelor’s degree in Agriculture, majoring in Plant Breeding and Genetics. At present, he is pursuing his master’s degree in Plant Genetic Resources Conservation Management at the University of the Philippines – Los Baños, Laguna.

He is currently under the Asian Development Bank - Japan Scholarship Program (ADB-JSP) in partnership with the International Rice Research Institute to work on genetic diversity assessment and population structure of 130,000 rice accessions collected across the world using Single Nucleotide Polymorphic - Kompetitive Allele Specific PCR (SNP-KASP) markers. The project aims to help plant breeders select varieties for rice breeding development and enhancement research, as well as rice gene bank curators to decide on appropriate conservation management practices.

For him, there is a need to provide available and accessible food in the current and future generations. “Conservation of Plant Genetic Resources plays an important role in providing sources of genes in Plant Breeding to develop high yielding, disease-resistant, and climate change resilient crops” he added. Jess is an advocate of Plant Genetic Resources Conservation and Agriculture, aiming for the younger generation to be well-involved in Agriculture for food security.

According to him, he is a “frustrated teacher”, wherein he often joins peer facilitator organizations in their university which aims to help freshmen adjust with the collegiate life. He has also served as mentor younger students (mostly High School) and college students conducting thesis or doing the training while working at a government research institution. As an Agriculture advocate, Jess joined SIDHI to reach out to the younger generation and use this as a platform to inspire them in taking the path of Agriculture.

His approach to mentoring is being proactive in sharing knowledge and being flexible with topics. He assures his students to be a “kuya” to them.

For aspiring young scientists, he emphasizes to keep their passion and don’t stop learning new things. “Everything is not easy at the start and even getting harder as you go. Just don't worry, we all get used to it”.