Manuel Aybar works in the Technology Industry. He is originally from the Dominican Republic (A grower’s paradise, as he describes it). He has been growing orchids for approximately 26 years. The genus that got him started was Dendrobium in which he specializes (phalaenopsis-type). Member of the American Orchid Society since 1997 and the Greater North Texas Orchid Society since 2000. Manuel Aybar is an Accredited Judge of the American Orchid Society Judging program, and serves currently as a Chair for the AOS Dallas Judging Center. His current research includes the orchids of the Dominican Republic, for which he has gone in numerous orchid collecting trips back to his home country. He has been extensively involved in the judging of many shows around the US, including the Miami International Orchid Show and most of the southwest region (SWROGA) shows (New Orleans OS, Baton Rouge OS, Shreveport OS, Greater North Texas OS, Fort Worth OS, Oklahoma OS, and Arkansas). He has also served as an international judge for Orchid Shows in Taiwan (TOGA 2010,2011,2013,2015,2016), Peru, Costa Rica, Colombia, as well as the World Orchid Conference in Miami (2008), Singapore (2011), South Africa (2014), Ecuador (Judging Chair-2017) He is affiliated with the Southwest Regional Orchid Growers Association (SWROGA), and within this association he belongs to the publications committee and serves as the Webmaster for the organization’s web site. He has given several Orchid Seminars and Potting classes at Smith and Hawkins, North Haven Gardens, and other popular gardening stores. He offered a series of orchid workshops for Range Rover, US as a part of the Land Rover Destination Tour. He is a regular lecturer for the local orchid societies and visiting speaker for societies around the country.