Recent Graduates of the Interdepartmental Genetics Program
Singh, Daljit
Ph.D. 2018
Major advisor: J. Poland
Thesis title: Phenomics enabled genetic dissection of complex traits in wheat breeding
Position after Graduation: NA
Pan, Qianli
M.S. 2019
Major advisor: E. Akhunov
Thesis title: Application of CRISPR/Cas9 to edit genes affecting seed morphology traits in wheat
Position after Graduation: NA
Parasumanna Girinathan, Brintha
Ph.D. 2018
Major advisor: R.Govind
Thesis title: Integrating sporulation, toxin production and motility by redefining the role of TcdR and characterizing the sin region in Clostridium difficile
Position after Graduation: NA
Singh, Narinder
Ph.D. 2017
Major advisor: J.Poland
Thesis title: Genetic diversity of wheat wild relative, Aegilops tauschii, for wheat improvement
Position after Graduation: Fellow Post-Doc, Kansas State University, Dr. Jesse Poland
Lemes da Silva, Cristiano
Ph.D. 2017
Major advisor: A. Fritz
Thesis title: Genomic approaches for mapping and predicting disease resistance in wheat (Triticum aestivum L).
Position after Graduation:
Shao, Mingqin
Ph.D. 2017
Major advisor: G. Bai/G. Zhang
Thesis title: QTL mapping of pre-harvest sprouting and stripe rust resistance in wheat cultivars Danby and Tiger.
Position after Graduation:
Yue, Wei
Ph.D. 2017
Major Advisor: C. Toomajian
Thesis title: Characterization of genetic variation in secondary metabolites in Fusarium.
Position after Graduation: Post-Doctoral Fellow, University of New Mexico Comprehensive Cancer Center
Espinola, Jose
M.S. 2017
Major advisor: R. Govind
Thesis title: Characterization of an efflux pump system, in Clostridium difficile.
Position after Graduation: Graduate student at Penn State
Migeon, Pierre
M.S. 2017
Major advisor: S. Liu
Thesis title: Comparative genomics of repetitive elements between maize inbred lines B73 and Mo17
Position after Graduation: Graduate student at Stony Brook University, New York
McGowan, Jessica
M.S. 2016
Major advisor: A. Fritz
Thesis title: Generation of T. aestivum x Ae. speltoides doubledamphiploids for future use in heat tolerance research and analysis of their clonality.
Position after Graduation: Biological Research Technician at USDA-ARS in Pullman WA
Mahmood, Hamida
M.S. 2016
Major advisor: F. White
Thesis title: Computational mining for terminator-like genes in soybean
Position after Graduation:
Rife, Trevor
Ph.D. 2016
Major advisor: J. Poland
Thesis title: Utilizing a historical wheat collection to develop new tools for modern plant breeding
Position after Graduation: Fellow Post-Doc Kansas State University, Dr. Jesse Poland
Crain, Jared
Ph.D. 2016
Major advisor: J. Poland
Thesis title: Leveraging the genomics revolution with high-throughput phenotyping for crop improvement of abiotic stresses
Position after Graduation: Fellow Post-Doc Kansas State University, Dr. Jesse Poland
Dunckel, Sandra
Ph.D. 2015
Major advisor: J. Poland
Thesis title: Whole genome approaches for characterizing and utilizing synthetic wheat
Position after Graduation: Wheat Leader & Biotechnology Lead, Long Reach Plant Breeders, Australia
Battenfield, Sarah
Ph.D. 2015Major advisor: A. Fritz
Thesis title: Genomic selection and association mapping for wheat processing and end-use quality
Position after Graduation: Fellow Post-Doc, Kansas State University, Jesse Poland
Downes, Damien
Ph.D. 2015
Major advisor: R. Todd
Thesis title: Transcriptional regulation in Aspergillus nidulans during nitrogen sufficiency
Position after Graduation: Postdoc at the Weatherall Institute of Molecular Medicine, University of Oxford, with Dr. Jim Hughes
Gaynor, Robert Chris
Ph.D. 2015
Major advisor: A. Fritz
Thesis title: Genomic selection for Kansas wheat
Position after Graduation:
Kalia, Bhanu
Ph.D. 2015
Major advisor: Gill
Thesis title: 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, B.S. Gill
