While working on her master’s degree in Uganda at Makerere University, Danielle Essandoh met Soraya Leal-Bertioli, a senior research scientist in IPBGG, through a project with Essandoh’s academic advisor, David Okello, who was the in-country co-PI with Leal- Bertioli on a project for the Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Peanut at UGA.
“As I got to know her, I noticed she would pay very close attention, and I was impressed by her dedication and resilience,” Leal-Bertioli said. “She works incredibly hard and is quite passionate, and that makes her a great student.”
Now Essandoh works with Leal-Bertioli in UGA's Wild Peanut Lab. Essandoh is excited about the depth of learning that the lab has to offer.
Because of his keen interest in molecular breeding, in 2003, Pawan Kumar was invited to by Dr. Chee to UGA at the Cotton Molecular Breeding Lab (CMBL), Tifton as a visiting scientist to work towards identifying genetic control of root knot nematode (RKN) resistance in Upland cotton. They were able to map a major locus on chromosome 11 using RFLP markers.
In 2006, Kumar enrolled as a PhD student with Dr. Chee at UGA and worked in the CMBL to improve fiber quality of Upland cotton using molecular markers.
We're proud of our awesome graduate students and want to recognize their excellence!
The Institute for Plant Breeding, Genetics and Genomics has a vibrant graduate program that offers both a Master's degree and a Doctorate of Philosophy in Plant Breeding, Genetics and Genomics.
Jazib Ali Irfan, Ph.D. candidate working with Dr. Missaoui, is featured in the latest edition of CropLife in their Next Gen #FoodHeroes series.
Irfan's thesis is “Genomic Selection in Switchgrass.” In this research project, he’s working on predicting phenotype from genotype. He works on half-sib families of AP13 cultivars and tries to identify high biomass-yielding progenies. From there, he will develop a genomic model to predict phenotype from genotype.