Dr. Russell W. Jessup (Professor) leads the Industrial Hemp & Perennial Grass Breeding programs within the Department of Soil & Crop Sciences at Texas A&M University. Hemp improvement efforts include enabling technologies towards inbred lines, triploid hybrids, NIRS chemotyping, phytochemistry, and value-added bioproducts. Perennial grass efforts target diverse feedstocks (forages, biomass, turfgrasses, ornamentals) and emerging bio-based material commodities (biofuels, biosilica, bioplastics, pyrolized amendments, leaf protein isolates, etc.) in parallel with hybrids optimized for C-sequestration and resource-use-efficiency. The program routinely utilizes traditional, cytogenetic, physiological, and molecular tools. Dr. Jessup grew up in the Texas Hill Country, served in the US Army (1993-1995), completed his PhD at Texas A&M University (2005), held a post-doctoral position in the USDA-ARS (2005-2007), worked for Mendel Biotechnology as a biofuel feedstock breeder (2007-2009), and returned to Texas A&M University in 2009. Dr. Jessup teaches courses focusing on hemp-based renewable bioproducts as well as turfgrass science.