Stephen P. Ficklin received the B.S. degree in computer science from Brigham Young University, in 2000, the M.S. degree in computer science from Clemson University, in 2003, and the Ph.D. degree in plant and environmental sciences from Clemson University, in 2013. He also served professionally as a UNIX Systems Administrator, a Bioinformaticist, and an Assistant Director of bioinformatics with the Clemson’s Genomics Institute for eight years. He was a Researcher and held a postdoctoral position with Washington State University, for five years. He is currently an Assistant Professor with a research and teaching appointment at the Department of Horticulture, Washington State University, with an emphasis on bioinformatics and computational systems biology. His focus is the development of computational tools and infrastructure that improve our understanding of the molecular mechanisms that underlie complex traits of agricultural crops. Such traits are often important economically, benefit human health, and improve food security, management, and resource utilization. He teaches courses in data science and systems biology to graduate-students across life sciences.