Kelly Swarts  studied biology and anthropology at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor USA. She spent 6 years in the Southwest US as an archaeologist (archaeobotanist), earning a master’s degree in archaeology at Northern Arizona University. She completed a PhD in plant genetics at Cornell University under Edward Buckler, focused on complex trait adaptation in maize, specifically incorporating archaeological with modern samples to understand how maize adapted to the Southwest US from Mexico. Following a short postdoc focused on ancient DNA approaches in the Ancient Genomics Group under Hernan Burbano and Detlef Weigel at the Max Plank for Developmental Biology in Tübingen, Germany, she started as a tenure track group leader in January 2019 jointly at the Gregor Mendel Institute and the Max Perutz Labs, focused on complex trait genomics in trees and maize.