Qiuyi Fu was born and raised in Hangzhou, a city located in eastern China. She received her Bachelor of Science in Agricultural Leadership and Development with a minor in Horticultural Science at Texas A&M. Qiuyi began working in Dr. Oscar Riera-Lizarazu’s lab in the summer of 2019 as an undergraduate student, which exposed her to the rose genetics and breeding program. The following year, she was admitted into the graduate school at Texas A&M and continued her studies under Dr. Riera-Lizarazu’s guidance. Qiuyi completed her M.S. program in October 2022. Her work involved marker-assisted identification of rose germplasm carrying the black spot resistance gene Rdr1A.