Meet the 2024 Organizing Committee

Maybell Banting

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Position: Co-Chair

Advisors: Dr. Jennifer Kimball

Research Focus: Cultivated wild rice genomics

Maybell is a second year Ph.D. student in the Applied Plant Sciences Program. She is currently working with Jennifer Kimball in the Cultivated Wild Rice Breeding and Genetics Laboratory. Maybell's research focuses on building genomic resources for cultivated wild rice, primarily the species' transcriptome assembly improvement, gene expression atlas, constructing genetic maps, and developing KASP markers.

Alejandra Quinones

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Position: Co-Chair

Advisor: Cory D. Hirsch

Research Focus: Abiotic Stress Multiomics

Alejandra is a second year PhD student in the Applied Plant Sciences program working in the Stress Biology Lab. Her research focuses on studying the response of a diverse maize germplasm to individual and combined abiotic stresses through a holistic approach that integrates high throughput phenomics, transcriptomics and ionomics to study how these stresses affect different aspects of plant growth.

Maicy Vossen

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Position: Website/ Social Media Coordinator, Advertisement

Advisors: Dr. Walid Sadok and Dr. Eric Watkins

Research Focus: Winterhardiness in Perennial Ryegrass

Maicy is a second-year PhD student in the Applied Plant Sciences Program at UMN in the Department of Agronomy and Plant Genetics. Her research aims to develop a high throughput phenotyping method to evaluate winter hardiness in perennial ryegrass. Outside of her studies, Maicy enjoys fitness, painting and reading new books. 

Lori Croghan

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Position: Committee member

Advisors: Dr. Alan Smith and Dr. Neil Anderson

Research Focus: Gene drive for invasive tansy

Lori is a second year masters student in the Applied Plant Sciences graduate program in the Department of Horticultural Science. Her research explores gene drive as a novel method of management for invasive tansy populations. She is working to identify potential risks and benefits of gene drive deployment in plants, develop transformation protocols for common tansy, and identify targets in genes essential to female fertility in common tansy.

Lauren Docherty

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Position: Student Presentation Organizer

Advisors: Dr. Aaron Lorenz and Dr. Senyu Chen

Research Focus: Soybean cyst nematode diversity

Lauren is a third year Ph.D student in the Applied Plant Sciences program in the Department of Agronomy and Plant Genetics. Lauren’s research focuses on genotypic and phenotypic diversity in soybean cyst nematode populations in Minnesota. She is measuring virulence on soybean varieties with different resistance sources and taking morphological measurements of nematodes. She hopes her research can be used to develop soybean varieties with durable resistance. This is her second year on the organizing committee and she is looking forward to her first in-person symposium.

Emily M. Moore

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Position: Committee Member

Advisors: Dr. Stan Hokanson and Dr. Matthew Clark

Research Focus: Genetic resistance to rose black spot disease and identifying other phenotypic traits via a genetic map

Emily is a third year graduate student at UMN. She received her bachelor's degree in horticulture from University of Wisconsin-River Falls. Her passion for plants and learning brought he to the U to continue her academic journey, with a goal of earning a Ph.D and beginning a career in academia teaching future horticulture students. Outside of academia, she enjoys cooking, baking, hiking and scrapbooking. 

Sapphire Coronejo

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Position: Student Presentation Organizer
 
Advisor: Dr. Laura Shannon
 
Research focus: Domestication history and genetic diversity of cultivated potatoes
 
Sapphire is a first year Ph.D. student in the Applied Plant Sciences Program in the Department of Horticultural Science. Her research focuses on exploring the domestication history and genetic diversity of the North American potato germplasm by using dihaploids derived from elite tetraploid cultivars. Sapphire’s work aims to create genomic resources that will enhance breeding programs, specifically through the development of haplotype-based germplasm selection and optimization.

Inés Rebollo

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Position: Committee Member

Advisor: Dr. Rex Bernardo

Research Focus: Genomic prediction

Inés is a second-year PhD student in the Applied Plant Sciences program of the University of Minnesota. Her research is about developing a chromosome-specific genomic prediction approach using maize as a model species.

Lovepreet Singh

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Position: Committee Member

Advisor: Dr. Aaron Lorenz
 

Research Focus: Genomic prediction and GxE interactions
Lovepreet is a first year Ph.D. student in the Applied Plant Sciences program in the Department of Agronomy and Plant Genetics. Lovepreet’s research interests, broadly, are quantitative genetics and genomics-assisted breeding. Currently he is part of the SOYGEN (Science Optimized Yield Gains across ENvironments) project. The major goal of this project is to predict cultivar performance in future target environments through genomics-assisted breeding models, phenomics, and environment characterization.

Isabella Fiore

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Position: Student Presentation Organizer

Advisors: Dr. Aaron Lorenz and Dr. Robert Stupar

Research Focus: Genetic resistance to iron deficiency chlorosis in soybean

Isabella is a first year PhD student in the Applied Plant Sciences Program in the Department of Agronomy and Plant Genetics. Her research focuses on breeding for increased resistance to iron deficiency chlorosis, a common abiotic stress for soybeans in the upper midwest. Her research also involves identifying candidate genes driving quantitative trait loci conferring resistance to iron deficiency chlorosis.

Chase Krug

 

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Position: Committee member

Advisors: Dr. Kevin Smith

Research Focus: Domestication of Silphium integrifolium

Chase is a second year PhD student in the Applied Plant Sciences program in the Department of Agronomy and Plant Genetics. His research focuses on understanding the genetic architecture of important agronomic traits in Silphium integrifolium and the development of recurrent selection populations of silflower selected for increased seedling vigor.

Navjot Singh

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Position: Committee Member

Research: Debalin Sarangi


Navjot's research aims to quantify the level and investigate the genetic and physiological  mechanisms of herbicide resistance in recently identified waterhemp accessions from  Minnesota. In addition, he also investigates a critical period of weed seed control for long-term waterhemp management in soybean-based cropping systems.