Robert Mattera is in his final year as a Ph.D. graduate researcher with a focus on plant breeding, genetics and genomics. His Master’s program was focused on the genetic diversity of the dogwood germplasm collection at Rutgers University, the largest of its kind in the country. Using molecular markers, he identified genetic groups within the germplasm collection and helped decipher a complex collection of trees and shed light on the issues of mislabeling in the dogwood industry. As part of the USAID Research and Innovation Fellowship Program and in collaboration with the Mars Chocolate Company, he spent six months abroad at the Mars Center for Cocoa Science in Bahia, Brazil studying the genetics of Witch’s Broom disease on Theobroma cacao. Using SNPs and microsatellite markers he helped elucidate QTLs. In addition to this, he helped screen various essential oil sprays as an inexpensive and economical way for rural South American farmers to increase pollination intensity and subsequently pod yield. He has successfully managed the basil breeding program and is currently completing a QTL study on the MRI x SB22 basil mapping population. He also has expertise in genome annotation and has been completing his dissertation studies on annotating the O. basilicum ‘RUSB22’ draft genome.