Graduate Students

PSLA Graduate Students

Meet our graduate students!

Please visit our Landscape Architecture Graduate Students page to meet our LARC & LACP students.

Contact Information	Program	Research Focus
Brilliant Asamoah basamoa1@g.umd.edu	AEED
Innocent Byiringiro ibyiring@umd.edu Qi Lab	PLSC	Plant genome engineering Metabolic pathways engineering
Bhavit Chhabra bchhabra@umd.edu Rawat Lab	PLSC	My research focuses on improving the genetic resistance of Wheat against fungal diseases.
Joshua Clem jclem@umd.edu Qi Lab	PLSC	Plant genome engineering DNA repair CRISPR/Cas systems
Samantha Hasselholf samhass@g.umd.edu	PLSC
Adam Hopper ahopper@umd.edu Micallef Lab	PLSC	Metabolomics of crop surfaces influence on plant-microbe associations Reduction of enteric pathogen colonization on crop surfaces using a metabolomics approach Examination of physiological and morphological traits that drive enteric pathogen attachment/colonization
Claire Hudson clhudson@umd.edu Micallef Lab	PLSC	Exploration of the role of endophytic microorganisms and plant defenses against pathogenic bacteria Influence of plant associated microbiota on plant exometabolome and the metabolome of the host Abiotic and biotic elicitation of antimicrobial secondary metabolites in leafy greens as a means to improve food safety. Abiotic elicitation and the impact on shelf life and microbiome shifts in leafy greens. Internalization of enteric pathogens on leafy greens in response to factors such as changes in environmental conditions, metabolome and microbiome.
Augustus Samura John jsamura@g.umd.edu	AEED
Emily Johnson emilykj@g.umd.edu	PLSC
Anmol Kajla akajla97@umd.edu Tiwari Lab	PLSC
Leyu Kalkidan lkalkida@umd.edu	PLSC
Diksha Klair diksha@umd.edu Micallef Lab	PLSC	Investigation of the Influence of PGPR on plant metabolome under abiotic stresses. Enteric pathogen-plant interactions influencing transcriptomic and metabolomic profile of plant.
Shaylan Kolodney kolodney@g.umd.edu Tully Lab	PLSC
Joseph Lagner jlagner@umd.edu Qi Lab	PLSC	Application of CRISPR-based disease detection.
Bruce Levine levinebj@umd.edu	PLSC	CRISPR gene editing of fungi. Exploration of effector proteins and other virulence factors in the chestnut blight fungus Cryphonectria parasitica Host-pathogen interaction between Cryphonectria parasitica and chestnut.
Janelle Livesay jlivesay@umd.edu Rawat Lab	PLSC	Evaluation of the effectiveness of the use of Ascaroside treatments as a prophylaxis against Fusarium graminearum infection in wheat.
Hongjin Lu lhj817@g.umd.edu	PLSC
Gracie Mason gracies@g.umd.edu	AEED
Shipon Md Miah shipon@g.umd.edu	PLSC
Ian Moot imoot@g.umd.edu Tiwari Lab	PLSC	Positional cloning and transformation of a broad-spectrum leaf rust resistance gene in wheat Discovering abiotic stress resistance genes in diploid wheat using GWAS
Arielis Morales-Salva amoral13@umd.edu Tiwari Lab	PLSC	Wheat Genetics
Miracle Omoregbee osazeemi@g.umd.edu	PLSC
Carl Paulson cpaulso1@umd.edu Tiwari Lab	PLSC	Wheat genetics Wheat transformation
Cara Peterson cmpeters@umd.edu Tully Lab	PLSC	Testing methods of integrating cover crops into no-till grain production Investigating the effect of mechanical and chemical cover crop termination methods on soil moisture Evaluating the ability of a soil-water-crop-atmosphere model to predict soil moisture dynamics under a cover crop residue
Anshul Rana arana1@g.umd.edu	PLSC	Understanding the association between weed-originated Colletotrichum nymphaeae and strawberry anthracnose Determining microbiome seasonality in strawberries and nearby weeds Understanding the impact of herbicide applications on the change of disease inoculum levels Also, please find my picture attached.
Jacqueline Repp jrepp@g.umd.edu	PLSC
Shannon Rotella srotella@umd.edu Hu Lab	PLSC	Determination of the frequency of fungicide resistance in grape downy mildew. Identification and distribution of grape downy mildew cryptic species in Mid Atlantic vineyards. Understanding the effect of shoot thinning and leaf pulling practices on disease prevalence in Mid Atlantic vineyards.
Levin Sarver lsarver@g.umd.edu	AEED
Bradley Simpson bsimpso2@g.umd.edu	PLSC
Meg Smolinski msmolins@umd.edu	AEED
Nathaniel Spicer nspicer@umd.edu Tully Lab	PLSC	Evaluating the impacts of sea level rise on carbon and nitrogen cycling in agricultural fields and forests on the Eastern Shore.
Haylee Staruk haylee@g.umd.edu	AEED
Uday Kumar Thera uthera@umd.edu Shahoveisi Lab	PLSC	Turfgrass pathology and Sustainable Turfgrass Maintenance
Louis Thorne lthorne@umd.edu Fiorellino Lab	PLSC	Phytoremediation in soils with high phosphorus
Sydney Wallace swallac1@g.umd.edu	PLSC
Ruiting Wang rtwang28@g.umd.edu	PLSC
Erin Wiegman ewiegman@g.umd.edu Rawat lab	PLSC	Plant Developmental Genetics; Genome Editing; Trait Development in Biotech.
Yuwei Xiao ywxiao93@terpmail.umd.edu Liu Lab	PLSC	Fruit development through two different plant systems: wild strawberry (Fragaria vesca) and Arabidopsis thaliana.
Minting Zeng mintingz@g.umd.edu	PLSC