Awards

2024

A part of Laynar Leyton's dissertation has been published in the Journal of ASHS as the cover story. Read the ASHS press release here.
Yongjun Yue (Zhang lab) took 2^nd place in the 2024 Ornamental Plant Breeding Oral Competition at the the American Society for Horticultural Science meeting.
FFAR Fellow Samuele Lamon has won 1st place in the FFAR Lightning Talk (3-minute thesis) Competition.
Innovation Gateway has announced 2024 IPBGG John Ingle Innovation in Plant Breeding Awards Recipients. They are:
- Caitlin McCann (Chavez Lab)
- Daniel Matusinec (Bertioli Lab)
- Rachel Hill/Iago Schardong (Chee Lab)
- Sameer Pokhrel (Ozias-Akins Lab)
Saptarshi Mondal (Jespersen lab) was selected to receive the 2024 Georgia Seed Association Scholarship. The competition was open to all ag students in Georgia.
IPBGG's Emile Barnes (Bertioli Lab) who took first prize in the Joe Sugg Ph.D. Competition at the 56th Annual meeting of the American Peanut Research and Education Society (APRES) in Oklahoma City. Aasish Pokharel (Brown Lab) took 2nd place in the MS poster competition, while Stephanie Botton (Ozias-Akins Lab) took 3^rd place in the MS oral competition.
Rachel Rackers won the 2024 ASPB 3 Minute Thesis Competition.
Hallie Wright - CSSA Gerald Mott award
Saptarshi Mondal - NAPB Borlaug Scholar
Stephanie Botton - NAPB Borlaug Scholar
Emile Barnes - M. Terry and Elizabeth S. Coffey Graduate Fellowship
Sam Wan - South Georgia Graduate Fellowship
Harshita Saxena (Bahri lab) received a 2024 Summer Research Grant from the Graduate School.
Sydney Webb (Ozias-Akins lab) placed 2^nd in the masters division of the 2024 CAES Broadus Browne competition.
Hallie Wright (Devos lab) took 1^st place in the PhD division of the 2024 CAES Broadus Browne competition.
Donglin Zhang named the inaugural 2024 Plant Biotechnology Fellow by the American Society for Horticultural Sciences.
Yongjun Yue (Zhang lab) is one of five students receiving this year's Spring Meadow - Proven Winners scholarships.
Rachel Rackers (Devos Lab) was selected as a finalist for the 2024 Graduate School 3-MT competition.
Bill Branch is a 2024 inductee into the Georgia Agricultural Hall of Fame!
Paul Raymer was named to the Senior Members of National Academy of Inventors.
Soraya Bertioli received one of UGA's Non-Tenure Track Faculty Research Excellence Awards for 2024.
John Bagwell (Bhari & Mergoum labs) is one of the five graduate and fifteen undergraduate students selected across the country to participate in the USDA' s 2024 Future Leaders in Agriculture Program.
Roger and Cindy Boerma Plant Breeding Excellence Scholarship Award awarded to Vinavi Gamage.
The Glenn & Helen Burton Feeding the Hungry Scholarship Award awarded to Madav Subedi and John Bagwell.
The Peggy Ozias-Akins Leadership in Science Award awarded to Samuele Lamon.
Sameer Pokhrel (Ozias-Akins Lab)

2023

Cecilia McGregor - American Society for Horticultural Science- Outstanding Graduate Educator
Gema Nugraha, MS student, won third place among graduate student posters at AAGB 2023 (Advances in Arachis Genomics and Biotechnology) in Huntsville, AL. His title was Constructing Arachis correntina Genome Sequence from Neoallotetraploid Arachis ipaensis x Arachis correntina hybrids.
Saptarshi Mondal received 2^nd in C5- Turfgrass Breeding, Genetics, Molecular Biology, Microbiome Oral I and 3^rd in C2- Crop Physiology and Metabolism at the CSSA meeting.
Hallie Wright won the CSSA-wide oral and poster competition. At the recent CSSA meeting, graduate students competed for the combined best poster and 5 min oral presentations within each of the 9 CSSA divisions. The winners of each division squared off and Hallie came out as the overall society-wide winner.
Kudos to Daniel Matusinec, who got the second place in the AAGB poster competition.
Hallie Wright - 2023 GA Seed Association Scholarship Award
Qian Feng - First place, 2023 ASHS PhD Poster Competition
Sydney Webb - First place in the Joe Sugg MS oral competition held at APRES in Savannah.
Gaurab Bhattarai - International Society for Horticultural Science’s “Young Minds Award” for his presentation at the recent Walnut and Pecan symposium in Grenoble, France. His presentation was “Transcriptome analysis under pecan scab infections reveals the molecular mechanisms of the defense response in pecan”.
2023 John Ingle Innovation in Plant Breeding Award - Austin Hart, Kamalpreet Dhillon, Nathaniel Burner, Stephanie Botton, and Yongjun Yue
2023 Graduate School PHD Award Recipients - Dallas Kreisa: Presidential Graduate Fellow Award, Rachel Hill: Graduate School Doctoral Fellows Award, Sameer Pokhrel: George Hugh Boyd Memorial Scholarship, and Madhav Subedi: George Hugh Boyd Memorial Scholarship
2023 Graduate School MS Award Recipients - Skye Remko: Graduate School Master’s Fellows Award, and Caitlin McCann: Graduate School Master’s Fellows Award
A big congratulations to our Institute Director, Wayne Parrott, who was named a Fellow of the American Society of Plant Biology! Read the press release here.
Two IPBGG students won awards in last week's Broadus Browne competition. These are the college's highest student research awards.
- Congratulations to Stephanie Botton who took 1st place in the M.S. competition.
- Congratulations also to Nathaniel Burner for placed 2nd in the Ph.D. category.
Award Recipients
- Qian Feng - Roger and Cindy Boerma Plant Breeding Excellence Scholarship Award
- Sam McDonald - Roger and Cindy Boerma Plant Breeding Excellence Scholarship Award
- Mark Miller - Glenn and Helen Burton Feeding the Hungry Scholarship Award
- Hallie Wright - Peggy Ozias-Akins Leadership in Science Award

2022

Annual Retreat Poster Competition Winners
- M.S.
  - First Place – Sefa Ayten
    Title: Chromosome-scale Genome Assembly of the Medicinal Plant Teucrium marum (Lamiaceae)
  - Second Place – Stephanie Botton
    Title: Identifying and Characterizing Recombinant Lines of the Arachis cardenasii A09 Introgression in a Recombinant Inbred Peanut Population
- Ph.D.
  - First Place – Vinavi Gamage
    Title: Perturbations to soybean methionine metabolism underlying SHMT8-mediated resistance to soybean cyst nematode
  - Second Place – Qian Feng
    Title: Candidate gene identification for tomato aroma volatiles through an automatic gene screening pipeline with GWAS and linkage mapping
  - Second Place – Manoj Sapkota
    Title: Genome-wide association mapping for fruit volatiles contributing to tomato flavor
- Staff/Post-Doc
  - First Place – Nicole Bachleda
    Title: Genetic Loci Rj5 and Rj6 Control Nodulation in Soybean
  - Second Place – Raquel Rocha
    Title: Novel dorsal gland effector candidates identified from rootknot nematode adult females
Harshita Saxena was invited to the International Rice Research Institute as an On-the-Job Trainee.
Harshita Saxena received the Central Georgia Community Foundation Board Scholarship.
Vinavi Lakshman was awarded 3^rd place for PhD poster competition at the National Plant Breeder Association 2022 annual meeting. held at Iowa State University. The poster's title: “Perturbations to soybean methionine metabolism underlying SHMT8-mediated resistance to soybean cyst nematode.”
Congratulations to this year's Innovation in Plant Breeding Award winners:
- Gaurab Bhattarai
- Kendall Lee
- Sam McDonald
- Madhav Subedi
- Habib Widyawan
  Named after John Ingle, these awards are highly competitive while also providing a great way to practice and home grantsmanship skills. All PBGG graduate students and postdocs are encouraged to apply for next year's competition. Instructions and deadlines are at the link above.

Samuele Lamon was selected as a FFAR Fellow. The Rockey FFAR Fellows Program provides professional development and career guidance to the next generation of food and agriculture scientists across FFAR’s challenge areas and strategic initiatives.
Kendall Lee was awarded a 2022 North American Alfalfa Improvement Conference (NAAIC) student award of $500.
Kendall Lee was selected to participate in the American Seed Trade Association's (ASTA) 2022 Student Connections program. Student Connections is hosted by the ASTA and the Seed Science Foundation (SSF) through ASTA's Leadership, Education and Development (LEAD) Committee. This program provides networking opportunities with industry mentors, executives, and thought leaders for university students who are interested in pursuing careers in the seed industry. Selected students will have the opportunity to engage in educational opportunities before and during the Policy & Leadership Development Conference, and will leave as strong collegiate ambassadors for the seed industry on their respective campuses.
Manoj Sapkota was the recipient of the Roger and Cindy Boerma Plant Breeding Excellence Scholarship Award in the amount of $2500.00 for Spring Semester 2022.
Renan Silva e Souza was the recipient of the Glenn and Helen Burton Feeding the Hungry Scholarship Award in the amount of $2500.00 for Spring Semester 2022.
Sam McDonald - Second place at the 2022 Soybean Breeder’s Workshop Poster Competition “Discovery and Allele Mining of Novel Resistance to Frogeye Leaf Spot (Cercospora sojina) in Soybean”
Mark Miller - Third place at the 2022 Soybean Breeder’s Workshop Poster Competition “Predicting Optimal Cross Combinations to Accelerate Genetic Gain of Soybean"
Harshita Saxena received the Central Georgia Community Foundation Board Scholarship for outstanding academic achievement. Students who distinguish themselves through outstanding academic achievement and personal excellence are chosen for this award.
The Graduate School awarded the following students each a 2022 Summer Research Grant:
- Kamalpreet Kaur Dhillon ($1500.00)
- Muhammad Widyawan ($1500.00)
- Shreena Pradhan ($1500.00)
- Hallie Wright ($1500.00)
Congratulations to Shreena Pradhan and Hallie Wright - finalists in the UGA 3MT competition held April, 2022. All presenters were so impressive with their content and delivery! Congratulations, Shreena, on being the runner-up!

2021

Renan Silva E Souza was selected as a member of the 4th class of NAPB Borlaug Scholars.
PBGG students and postdocs “did us proud” at the Plant Center Retreat. Congratulations to student and postdoc poster award winners:
- Vincent Pennetti - Improving Agrobacterium through Gene Editing - Student First Place
- Shreena Pradhan - Mapping secretion and salt gland density in a zoysiagrass F2 mapping population - Student Second Place
- Ashley Snouffer - The role of OFPs and TRMs in patterning tomato fruit shape and identification of additional fruit shape modifiers - Postdoc Second Place
Kelley Goode, Ph.D. student with Dr. Melissa Mitchum, received NSF’s Graduate Research Fellowship Award. Goode studies root-knot nematodes, microscopic roundworms that parasitize plants, which can cause massive yield loss and damage to almost every plant in the world. She looks at the interaction between root-knot nematodes and soybeans to understand how some plants can be resistant to these dangerous pathogens.
Jordan Knapp-Wilson, Ph.D. student with Dr. Dario Chavez, was the 3rd place winner of the PhD poster competition at the National Association of Plant Breeders conference. Additionally, Knapp-Wilson place 4th in the annual PPRC Fall Symposium Poster Competition at UGA for his poster titled "3D Imaging and Quantitative Analysis of Peach Tree Architecture via TreeQSM."
Alexandra Ostezan and Dung Tran, Ph.D. candidates, were awarded 2nd place in the Society of Nematologists Cobb Foundation Video Contest with their video "Nematode or Plant? A Nutrient Battle."
Kendall Lee was awarded the 2021 Georgia Seed Association Scholarship in the amount of $2000.00.
Congratulations to Raegan Holton who won Third Place and $200 for her MS research presentation, “Screening Various Peanut (Arachis hypogaea L.) Genotypes for Aflatoxin Contamination Using in vitro Seed Colonization of Aspergillus flavus.” The competition was held in July as part of the 53^rd Annual American Peanut Research and Education Society meeting.
Hallie Wright, advised by Dr. Devos, received 2nd place NAPB 3MT competition (2020); CSSA Future Leader in Science.
Alexandra Ostezan (advised by Dr. Li) was selected as a 2021 Gerald O. Mott Meritorious Graduate Student Award in Crop Science recipient by the Crop Science Society of America.
Shreena Pradhan, advised by Katrien Devos, was selected as a 2021-2024 FFAR (Foundation for Food & Agriculture Research Fellows Program) Fellow in the Professional Development Category for the year 2021-2024. View her FFAR profile page.
John Ruter has been named Inventor of the Year by the UGA Research Awards Program. Dr. Ruter is the Allan Armitage Endowed Professor of Horticulture and Director of the Trial Gardens at UGA. The research he conducts focuses on breeding and releasing herbaceous and woody ornamental cultivars and developing Camellia oleifera as a new oilseed crop for the United States. Read complete story.
Renan Silva E Souza, Ph.D. student advised by Dr. Zenglu Li, was awarded 2nd place in the NAPB Plant Breeding Coordinating Committee (PBCC) Video Competition. It is titled “Chicken sandwiches, barbecue and a strong body! How genetic diversity and plant breeding can satisfy your needs.” View the video here.
Dr. Peggy Ozias-Akins, D.W. Brooks Professor and Distinguished Research Professor in the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, has been named the University of Georgia’s recipient of the Southeastern Conference Faculty Achievement Award. Read complete story here.
Dung "Ivy" Tran, a Ph.D. student advised by Dr. Zenglu Li, received first place in the 2021 Soybean Breeders Workshop poster competition. The poster's title: "Toward Identifying Novel Genes Underlying Resistance to Soybean Cyst Nematode (Heterodera glycines)."
Alexandra Ostezan, a Ph.D. student advised by Dr. Zenglu Li, received 2nd place in the 2021 Soybean Breeders Workshop poster competition. The poster's title: "An Intelligent and High-throughput Imaging System for Soybean Cyst Nematode Phenotyping Assays."
Mark Miller, an M.S. student advised by Dr. Zenglu Li, received 3rd place in the 2021 Soybean Breeders Workshop poster competition. The poster's title: "Optimal Cross Prediction to Improve Genetic Gain for Seed Yield in Soybean."
Kelly Goode, a Ph.D. student in the Mitchum Lab, has been awarded a National Science Foundation(NSF) Graduate Research Fellowship (GRF). The GRF provides a student with financial support for three years. Goode's research is focused on characterizing the molecular basis of soybean resistance to the southern root-knot nematode (SRKN) Meloidogyne incognita, a major pathogen of soybeans. SRKN resistance has been bred into many soybean varieties, but the genes involved and underlying mechanism of resistance are yet to be understood. Kelly’s research will provide a better understanding of the resistance mechanism to assist breeders’ in developing more durable resistance in soybeans for growers. Well done, Kelly!
Student Sam McDonald took 2nd place in the E. Broadus Browne Award for Outstanding Graduate Research. Read complete story here.

2020

Congratulations to Katrien Devos who was named a UGA Distinguished Research Professor! See video at https://research.uga.edu/research-awards/2017/04/14/katrien-devos/
Plant breeding programs at the University of Georgia have been ranked #2 by Universities.com, an informational website providing university rankings, tuition costs and in-depth information.
- The 5 best agricultural and horticultural plant breeding colleges:
  - Cornell University
  - University of Georgia
  - Texas A & M University
  - Iowa State University
  - Texas Tech University
Congratulations to Chandler Levinson and Hallie Wright as respective recipients of the 2021 Glenn and Helen Burton Feeding the Hungry and the Roger and Cindy Boerma Plant Breeding Excellence scholarship awards.
IPBGG POSTER COMPETITION RESULTS
- Ph.D./Postdoc Category
  - 1st – Hallie Wright, PhD student under Dr. Katrien Devos, Charactering novel shattering genes in finger millet
  - 2nd – Renan Souza, PhD student under Dr. Zenglu Li, Identification and introgression of an allele from Danbaegkong for increased seed protein in soybean
  - 3rd – Manoj Sapkota, PhD student under Dr. Esther van der Knaap, Identification of novel loci underlying fruit weight in tomato
- M.S. Category
  - 1st - Gurjot Singh Sidhu, MS student under Drs. Joann Conner and Peggy Ozias-Akins, Controlling induction of parthenogenesis via post-translational activation of PsASGR-BBML
- People’s Choice
  - Leynar Leyton, PhD student under Dr. Carol Robacker, Leaf color inheritance in Abelia
  - Sam McDonald, PhD student under Dr. Zenglu Li, Dissecting the genetics of soybean resistance to frogeye leaf spot using a genome-wide scan of diverse accessions and biparental populations
- Thanks to Hallie and Chandler for organizing the IPBGG poster competition, to Melissa Mitchum for coordinating the judging, and to Jason Wallace, Soraya Bertioli, Bochra Bahri, Matthew Chappell, Vasilia Fasoula, and Melissa for judging the competition. Students did an outstanding job of presenting their research virtually! If you did not get a chance to look at the presentations, you can still view the posters here.
Congratulations to Chandler Levinson on being named a National Association of Plant Breeders Borlaug Scholar for 2020. Levinson is a Ph.D. student whose major professor is Dr. Peggy Ozias-Akins. Read the complete story The IPBGG was well represented among awardees at the annual American Peanut Research and Education Society meeting held the week of July 13 (virtually, of course).
The IPBGG was well represented among awardees at the annual American Peanut Research and Education Society meeting held the week of July 13 (virtually, of course).
- Corley Holbrook – Corteva Agriscience Award for Excellence in Education
- Ye (Juliet) Chu – Corteva Agriscience Award for Excellence in Research
- Chandler Levinson – First Place in the Joe Sugg Award Graduate Student Competition; this year the competition had the largest group of students (28) in its 31-year history!

Congratulations to Raegan Wiggins, a PBGG M.S. student, on winning 1st place in the masters-level category in the E. Broadus Brown Award for Outstanding Graduate Research competition.
Samuel Mcdonald, Ph. D. student, won first place, and Renan Souza, Ph.D. student, won third place in the graduate student poster competition at the 2020 National Soybean Breeders Workshop held March 2-4, 2020 in St. Louis, Missouri. Sam presented a poster “Dissecting the genetics of soybean resistance to frogeye leaf spot using a genome-wide scan of diverse accessions and a biparental population” and Renan presented a poster “Identification and introgression of an allele from Danbaegkong for increased seed protein in soybean.”
Congratulations to Ed Beasley who won 2nd place in the student competition in the Cotton Improvement Conference at the Beltwide Cotton Conference in Austin, TX in January, 2020. He presented his PhD research (advisor Peng Chee) on Screening Cotton Germplasm for Resistance to Fusarium Wilt.

2019

Congratulations to Ethan Menke on being selected to receive the 2020 Glenn and Helen Burton Feeding the Hungry Scholarship Award! The purpose of this scholarship is to aid PhD students in their education and recognize research in breeding of grains, oilseeds, legumes, fruits, nuts, or vegetables for human food or animal feed.
Winnie Gimode received the Ph.D. E. Broadus Browne 2^nd place award.
IPBGG students and post-docs took top honor in the 2019 Plant Center Retreat Poster Contests:
Student Group
1st - Monica Prias (Parrott Lab): Towards a Methodology to Improve Somatic Embryogenesis and Transformation Efficiency in Switchgrass (PanicumvirgatumL.): Overexpression of Baby boom and Wuschel2 Genes
2nd - Hallie Wright (Devos Lab): Fine-mapping d4 and Br1 in pearl millet (tied with Peter Pietrzyk from Bucksch Lab)
Post-Doc Group
1st - Qiang Li (Van der Knaap Lab): Fine cis-engineering by CRISPR/Cas9 in the promoter of tomato KLUH generates varied fruit weight for crop improvement
2nd - Lei Zhang (Van der Knaap Lab): Mining novel fruit weight QTLs in semi-domesticated tomato population
Our own Leynar Naranjo is 3^rd place and honorable mention winner in the National Association of Plant Breeders' 2019 Photo Contest! Congratulations Leynar and thanks for participating!
Congratulations to the 2019 IPBGG Retreat Poster Award winners:
MS
1.    Gary Orr
2.    Carmen Krauss
Postdoc/Visiting Scientist
1.    Alex Johnson
2.    Eudald Illa-Berenguer
PhD
1.    Manoj Sapkota
2.    Yuji Ke
3.    Davis Gimode
Congratulations to Suraj Sapkota who was selected by the American Society of Agronomy to receive the 2019 Nelson Yield-Limiting Factors Graduate Student Scholarship! The scholarship includes a $3000 monetary award and recognition at the Annual Meeting at the prestigious ASA Awards Ceremony that includes the E.T. & Vam York Plenary Lecture on Tuesday, November 12th, 2019.
Ivy Tran won second place in the graduate student poster competition at the 2019 National Soybean Breeders Workshop in St. Louis, MO. She presented a poster on “Deciphering Composition of Root Microbiome of Soybean Genotypes for Soybean Cyst Nematode Resistance”.
Winnie Gimode, PhD student of Cecilia McGregor, continues to be a strong competitor! She won second place in the poster competition at the SR-ASHS and Watermelon Research Working Group meetings in Birmingham AL for the poster entitled "Fine mapping of a Major Quantitative Trait Locus Qdff3-1 Controlling Flowering Time in Watermelon." Winnie was also voted the 'audience favorite' for the paper presentation entitled “Identification of Quantitative Trait Loci Associated with Gummy Stem Blight Resistance in Watermelon."

2018

Congratulations to Carolina Ballen Taborda on being selected to receive the 2019 Glenn and Helen Burton Feeding the Hungry Scholarship Award! The purpose of this scholarship is to aid PhD students in their education and recognize research in breeding of grains, oilseeds, legumes, fruits, nuts, or vegetables for human food or animal feed.
Congratulations to Corley Holbrook who received the Research and Education Award from the Georgia Peanut Commission! Well-deserved recognition for extensive contributions to the peanut community.
The IPBGG was well represented at the 2018 Plant Center Retreat held during the last week of September at Unicoi State Park. Out of over 60 graduate student posters for which there were 3 awards, our graduate students won 1st and 3rd place!
- 3rd place: Lynsey Kovar, advised by Jason Wallace, for her poster entitled, ”Leaf microbiome community structure, co-abundance analysis, and correlation with phenotype across 270 diverse maize lines.“
- 1st place: Winnie Gimode, advised by Cecilia McGregor, poster entitled, “Fine-mapping of a Major Quantitative Trait Locus Qdff3-1 Controlling Flowering Time in Watermelon.“ Congratulations Winnie and Lynsey!
Congratulations to Davis Gimode who was selected by UGA-CAES Global Programs to attend The World Food Prize award ceremony and the 2018 World Food Prize Borlaug Dialogue International Symposium "Rise to the Challenge". This year’s symposium explores the effort to feed the large population expected by 2050.
Congratulations to Liz Prenger! In addition to representing IPBGG as a Borlaug Scholar at the NAPB Annual Meeting (Guelph, Ontario, Canada; Aug. 7-10), Liz also won the 2^nd place poster award!
Congratulations also are due to Thomas Gottilla (dual BSc/MSc student in IPBGG), another recipient of the Georgia Seed Association Scholarship!
Suraj Sapkota was selected as 2018’s recipient of the Georgia Seed Association Scholarship. The Georgia Seed Association offers a $2,000 scholarship annually to a deserving student attending a state university pursuing an agriculture-related degree. Depending on the number and quality of the applicants, the Association may opt to select a graduate and undergraduate recipient.
Congratulations Suraj!Congratulations to Mohamed Mergoum on being selected as the 2018 International Crop Science Award recipient! He will be recognized during the Tri-Societies Annual Meeting at the CSSA Awards Ceremony and Klepper Plenary Lecture on Tuesday, Nov. 6.
Wayne Parrott was just elected incoming secretary for the American Society of Plant Biologists. We thank Wayne for his willingness to serve in this capacity for this distinguished society.
Laxman Adhikari received 1st place for his oral presentation at the NAPA (Association of Nepalese Agricultural Professionals of America) biennial conference held in Oklahoma City on 26th and 27th May, 2018. Great job representing plant breeding and our graduate program!
Congratulations to our poster awardees at the 2018 Annual Retreat:

MS category:
1^st Place for Carmen Kraus with the title: “Getting in shape: When are tomato shape differences apparent in the developing bud?
2^nd Place for Elizabeth Prenger with the title: “Altered seed composition phenotypes for improvement of soybean seed composition”

PhD category:
1^st Place for Laxman Adhikari with the title: “Detection of QTLs associated with fall dormancy and winter-hardiness in alfalfa revealed potentiality of independent improvement of two traits”
2^nd Place for Yasin Topcu with the title: “The molecular and genetic basis of blossom end rot in tomato”

Postdoc, Staff, and Visiting Scientist:
1^st Place for Walid Korani with the title: “Crossword: A data-driven simulation language for the design of genetic-mapping experiments and breeding strategies”
2^nd Place for Ed McAssey with the title: “Transposon mutagenesis 2.0”

Joann Conner was recognized at the Tifton Campus Awards ceremony with the Tifton Campus Award for Senior Research Scientist for her discoveries in plant reproduction, specifically apomixis. Congratulations Joann!
Congratulations to Liz Prenger, MS student with Zenglu Li. Liz has been selected as one of four 2018 NAPB Borlaug Graduate Scholars! This is the inaugural class and Scholars will be paired with an NAPB professional member and receive complimentary registration and travel reimbursement to attend the 2018 NAPB Annual Meeting.
Congratulations to Wayne Parrott, recipient of a 2018, Distinguished Research Professor award.
Distinguished Research Professor is one of the highest UGA awards and is presented to "faculty who are internationally recognized for their original contributions to knowledge and whose work promises to foster continued creativity in their discipline". We are honored to have a faculty member of IPBGG achieve this recognition.
Congratulations to Evan McCoy who won the C.M. Beckham award for best PhD student presentation at the 82^nd Annual Meeting of the Georgia Entomological Society with his presentation titled: “Something to chew on: Convincing insects to dislike soybean”. The meeting was held in Helen, Georgia.
Congratulations to Connor Ryan, MS student of Donglin Zhang, for first place award in the Bryson L. James Student Competition at the 62nd Southern Nursery Association Research Conference. He presented a paper on "Susceptibility of Sarcococca taxa to Boxwood Blight caused by Calonectria pseudonaviculata." The conference was held in Jan in Baltimore, MD.
The 6^th Interdisciplinary Graduate Plant and Soil Symposium was held Friday, March 2 and IPBGG did very well! Four departments participate – Crop and Soil Science, Horticulture, PBGG, and Plant Pathology. Congratulations to Liz Prenger and Chandler Maddox for first and second place awards in MS and PhD competitions, respectively!
Liz Prenger won first place in the poster competition at the 2018 Soybean Breeders Workshop in St. Louis, MO. She presented a poster on “Identification and characterization of fast-neutron induced mutations underlying altered seed composition phenotypes for soybean seed improvement”. Congratulations Liz!
Two PBGG students, Winnie Gimode and Lucky Paudel, took top honors at the 2018 Annual Meeting of the Southern Region American Society for Horticultural Science in Jacksonville, FL. Winnie presented in the Warren S. Barham Ph.D. Student Paper and Lucky in the Norman F. Childers M.S. Student Paper competitions. Both are students of Dr. Cecilia McGregor. Congratulations to our distinguished ambassadors!
Congratulations to Ed Beasley for being awarded the Cotton Incorporated Fellowship.
Congratulations to Davis Gimode for being awarded the 2018 Innovative and Interdisciplinary Research Grant from the Graduate School and the 2018 U.S Borlaug Summer Institute on Global Food Security Fellowship.
Congratulations to Nathan Taitano on being selected to receive 2018's Glenn and Helen Burton Feeding the Hungry Scholarship Award! The purpose of this scholarship is to aid PhD students in their education and recognize research in breeding of grains, oilseeds, legumes, fruits, nuts, or vegetables for human food or animal feed.

2017

Congratulations to Suraj Sapkota for being awarded 2nd place in the 2017 C-1 Graduate Poster Competition from the Crop Science Society of America.
Congratulations to Carolina Ballén‐Taborda, 2017 PhD first place recipient of the prestigious E. Broadus Browne Award! Carolina presented her research on Mapping a new source of root-knot nematode (RKN) resistance from the wild species A. stenosperma and introgression into peanut Arachis hypogaea L.
Congratulations to Katrien Devos, recipient of the 2017 D.W. Brooks Faculty Award for Excellence in Research! The 2017 D.W. Brooks Lecture and Awards was held in Mahler Auditorium on Tuesday, November 7, 2017 at 3:30 p.m. Nina Fedoroff presented this year's lecture titled, "The GMO Wars: What do we do when scientists and citizens deeply disagree?"
Congratulations to Clint Steketee on being selected as a 2017 Crop Science Graduate Student Scholarship recipient from the Gerald O. Mott Scholarship Fund of the Crop Science Society of America and the Agronomic Science Foundation.
Kudos to two PBGG faculty who are 2017 UGA Research Awards Recipients:
- Dr. Peggy Ozias-Akins was awarded a Distinguished Research Professor award, read more.
- Dr. Katrien Devos was awarded a Creative Research Medal, read more.
Congratulations to Carolina Chavarro for winning second place in section 1 of the Joe Sugg Graduate Student competition at the annual American Peanut Research and Education Society meeting in Albuquerque, New Mexico! The title of her presentation was Genotyping of Recombinant Inbred Lines Population Provides Evidence of Tetrasomic Recombination in Cultivated Peanut.
Congratulations to Winnie Gimode for receiving second place in the graduate student category at the Plant Center Retreat.
Congratulations to Wayne Parrott on his election as a AAAS Fellow! Read more about this prestigious honor.
Congratulations to Elizabeth Prenger, Ivey Tran and Tim Chappell for receiving the John Ingle Innovation in Plant Breeding Award.
Kudos to Alexandra Ostezan and Lynsey Kovar for being awarded the Graduate School’s GREAT Fellowship.
Congratulations to Winnie Gimode for being awarded 1st Place in the IPBGG PhD Poster competition for presentation at the National Association of Plant Breeders meeting, 2017.
Congratulations to Clint Steketee on being selected to receive 2017's Glenn and Helen Burton Feeding the Hungry Scholarship Award! The purpose of this scholarship is to aid PhD students in their education and recognize research in breeding of grains, oilseeds, legumes, fruits, nuts, or vegetables for human food or animal feed.

2016

Congratulations to John Ruter for the numerous awards he received in 2016 in recognition of his expertise in and educational efforts with ornamental plants!
- Service Award from the American Conifer Society
- Fellow of the International Plant Propagators Society
- Lifetime Achievement Award from the Georgia Green Industry Association for his distinguished and unselfish service to the horticulture industry in Georgia
- A Student Career Development Award from UGA
Congratulations to Peng Chee for receipt of the 2016 Cotton Genetics Research Award presented at the 2017 Beltwide Cotton Improvement Conference!
Congratulations to Josh Clevenger on being selected to receive 2016's Glenn and Helen Burton Feeding the Hungry Scholarship Award! The purpose of this scholarship is to aid PhD students in their education and recognize research in breeding of grains, oilseeds, legumes, fruits, nuts, or vegetables for human food or animal feed.