2015 Graduates

Sandra Dunckel

• Date: Fall 2015
• Degree: Ph.D. Genetics
• Major Professor: Jesse Poland
• Thesis: Whole genome approaches for characterizing and utilizing synthetic wheat
• Position after Graduation: Fellow Post-Doc, Kansas State University, Dr. Jesse Poland

Zhao Peng

• Date: Fall 2015
• Degree: Ph.D. Plant Pathology
• Major Professor: Frank White
• Thesis: Contribution of TAL effectors in Xanthomonas to diseases of rice and wheat
• Position after Graduation: Post Doctoral Associate, University of Florida

Jessica Rupp

• Date: Summer 2015
• Degree: Ph.D. Plant Pathology
• Major Professor: Harold Trick, John Fellers (USDA)
• Thesis: RNA interference mediated virus resistance in transgenic wheat
• Position after Graduation: Assistant Professor, Department of Plant Sciences and Plant Pathology, Montana State University

Junli Zhang

• Date: Summer 2015
• Degree: Ph.D. Plant Pathology
• Major Professor: Frank White
• Thesis: Functional analysis of bacterial TAL effectors and the targeted susceptibility genes in plants
• Position after Graduation: Post Doctoral Fellow at Florida State University

Damien Downes

• Date: Spring 2015
• Degree: Ph.D. Genetics
• Major Professor: Richard Todd
• Thesis: Transcriptional regulation in Aspergillus nidulans during nitrogen sufficiency
• Position after Graduation: Postdoctoral Researcher, Weatherall Institute of Molecular Medicine, University of Oxford

Bhanu Kalia

• Date: Spring 2015
• Degree: Ph.D. Genetics
• Major Professor: Bikram Gill
• Thesis: Mining the Aegilops tauschii gene pool: evaluation, introgression and molecular characterization of adult plant resistance to leaf rust and seedling resistance to tan spot in synthetic hexaploid wheat
• Position after Graduation: Research Associate, Kansas State University, Dr. Bikram Gill