NAPB award winner Jacqueline Benson McRoberts is leading the charge with AI, image analytics, and a bold new vision for digital phenotyping.
In a ballroom full of plant scientists and researchers, where the talk of the day was phenomics, Dr. Jacqueline Benson Roberts struck a deeper chord.
“Be intentional,” she told the audience at the National Association for Plant Breeding (NAPB) annual meeting in Kona, Hawai’i. “In designing phenotyping platforms, in managing data, and in building your career.”
That message—delivered with both technical precision and human insight—summed up the spirit of McRoberts’ keynote address, delivered as the NAPB’s 2024 Early Career Scientist Award winner. As the leader of data stewardship and digital enablement for vegetable research and development at Bayer Crop Science, McRoberts is not only navigating one of the most complex digital transformations in modern agriculture. She’s also mentoring a generation of scientists toward careers that demand just as much vision as technical prowess.
Beyond the Phenotyping Surface
McRoberts — head of data stewardship and digital enablement for the Data Science and Engineering Capability Center in Vegetable R&D, Bayer Crop Science — used an iceberg metaphor to explain her approach to systems design in digital phenotyping. Above the water: the visible tools—automated imaging platforms, soil sensors, drones. Below it: the infrastructure that makes them work—data storage, analytics engines, cybersecurity frameworks, and user workflows.
“These platforms get a lot of attention,” McRoberts noted, “but without integrated architecture and intentional design, they won’t fulfill their promise.”
She highlighted Bayer’s investments in platforms like ScaleCam, a stationary imaging system used to analyze vegetable crops, and a more mobile solution deployed at global research sites. Since launch, the platforms have led to a five-fold increase in repeatability—an improvement with profound implications for selecting high-performing crop varieties.
What’s more, traits once deemed non-heritable when measured manually are now revealed to have genetic potential when digitized and analyzed using new tools. For McRoberts, this isn’t just a technical achievement—it’s a reminder that even subtle changes in workflow can unlock new layers of insight.
McRoberts brought levity to the stage as she likened neglected data systems to a laundry basket of clean clothes that never get put away—technically ready, but functionally inaccessible.
Under her leadership, Bayer moved from a decentralized, manual data processing model to a fully integrated digital workflow. Automated imaging is now coupled with centralized analytics, internal cloud infrastructure, and seamless data ingestion—a transformation achieved in just a few years.
AI and the Next Digital Frontier
McRoberts looked ahead to the role of artificial intelligence in phenomics, a field where high-resolution imagery and high-volume data can benefit immensely from machine learning and quantum computing.
“The question used to be, ‘How do we collect enough data?’” she said. “Now it’s, ‘How do we analyze all this data together?’”
Collaborations show promise for applying similar methods to plant breeding. And McRoberts is optimistic: “We’re finally getting better at public-private collaboration, and that’s where real breakthroughs happen.”
Though her technical insights were robust, her final slides shifted gears to personal reflection. As last year’s Early Career Scientist awardee, she urged the audience—many of them graduate students or early-career professionals—to design their careers with the same intentionality as they design their experiments.
She described her own journey not as a ladder but as a roadmap—full of pivots, pauses, and recalibrations. Parenthood, for example, had shifted her priorities. So had a deeper understanding of her own leadership style.
“Your skills need to align with your values,” she said. “And sometimes the next move isn’t up. It’s sideways, or even inward.”
McRoberts’ talk reflected something increasingly rare in the tech-driven agriculture sector: a systems view grounded in human understanding. It was about data, yes—but also about mentorship. It was about innovation—but equally about responsibility.
“We don’t just need better tools,” she said. “We need better systems. And those systems have to serve people.”
