Graduate Students

Brilliant Asamoah

basamoa1@g.umd.edu

• Extension Education
• Urban Agriculture
• Program Planning and Evaluation
• Behavior/Technology adoption
• Extension stakeholder engagement

Innocent Byiringiro

ibyiring@umd.edu

Qi Lab

• Plant genome engineering
• Metabolic pathways engineering

Bhavit Chhabra

bchhabra@umd.edu

Rawat Lab

• My research focuses on improving the genetic resistance of Wheat against fungal diseases. 

Joshua Clem

jclem@umd.edu

Qi Lab

• Plant genome engineering
• DNA repair
• CRISPR/Cas systems

Samantha Hasselholf

samhass@g.umd.edu

Hu Lab

• Small fruit pathology
  • Focused on understanding the impact that planting latently infected strawberry plants with fungal pathogens has on fruit production in the mid Atlantic region. 

Adam Hopper

ahopper@umd.edu

Micallef Lab

• 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

• 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

Emily Johnson

emilykj@g.umd.edu

Farcuh Lab

Anmol Kajla

akajla97@umd.edu

Tiwari Lab

Leyu Kalkidan

lkalkida@umd.edu

Farcuh Lab

•  Studying the effects of the use of ultraviolet (UV) irradiation on red skin color development, phenolic compounds and food safety on commercially important apple cultivars during post-harvest.

Diksha Klair

diksha@umd.edu

Micallef Lab

• 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

• Evaluating optimal cultivation strategies for switchgrass to maximize biomass production, enhance carbon sequestration, and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Joseph Lagner

jlagner@umd.edu

Qi Lab

• Application of CRISPR-based disease detection.

Bruce Levine

levinebj@g.umd.edu

Janelle Livesay

jlivesay@umd.edu

Rawat Lab

• 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

Gracie Mason

gracies@g.umd.edu

Shipon Md Miah

shipon@g.umd.edu

Farcuh lab

• Fruit quality, physiology and and molecular biology
• Pre-harvest ethylene regulators on physiological disorders of fruit 
• Fruit quality and key-related metabolic pathways during post-harvest storage condition 

Ian Moot

imoot@g.umd.edu

Tiwari Lab

• 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

• Wheat Genetics

Vienna Newton

vnewton@g.umd.edu

Miracle Omoregbee

osazeemi@g.umd.edu

Qi Lab

• Transgene-free genome editing in Poplar tree

Carl Paulson

cpaulso1@umd.edu

Tiwari Lab

• Wheat genetics

• Wheat transformation

Cara Peterson

cmpeters@umd.edu

Tully Lab

• 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

• 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

Hu lab

• Small fruit pathology
• Understanding fitness costs associated with important genetic mutations conferring fungicide resistance in the Botrytis fruit rot pathogen utilizing RNP based CRISPR/Cas9 system.

Shannon Rotella

srotella@umd.edu

Hu Lab

• 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

Bradley Simpson

bsimpso2@g.umd.edu

Meg Smolinski

msmolins@umd.edu

Nathaniel Spicer

nspicer@umd.edu

Tully Lab

• 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

Uday Kumar Thera

uthera@umd.edu

Shahoveisi Lab

• Turfgrass pathology and Sustainable Turfgrass Maintenance

Louis Thorne

lthorne@umd.edu

Fiorellino Lab

• Phytoremediation in soils with high phosphorus

Sydney Wallace

swallac1@g.umd.edu

Ruiting Wang

rtwang28@g.umd.edu

Erin Wiegman

ewiegman@g.umd.edu

Rawat lab

• Plant Developmental Genetics; Genome Editing; Trait Development in Biotech. 

Yuwei Xiao

ywxiao93@terpmail.umd.edu

Liu Lab

• Fruit development through two different plant systems: wild strawberry (Fragaria vesca) and Arabidopsis thaliana.

Minting Zeng

mintingz@g.umd.edu