Research Basic, strategic and applied research in crop improvement. Experience in self- and cross-pollinated species, which have disomic, trisomic, tetrasomic and hexasomic inheritance, sexual and vegetative propagation, plus annual and perennial production. Breeding efforts concentrated on the utilization of exotic germplasm for the development of elite progenitors and cultivars adapted to the environmental conditions in which they would be grown. Strong interest in quantitative and population genetics, especially for germplasm conservation and genetic enhancement, and for the improvement of current breeding techniques. Another important area of my research was to evaluate the types of gene action for economically important traits and techniques to improve breeding efficiency.