Student Achievement

2024 NAPB Borlaug Scholars

Stephanie Botton (peanut breeding, Ozias-Akins Lab) and Saptarshi Mondal (turf breeding, Jespersen Lab) were among those selected as 2024 Borlaug Scholars, given by the National Association for Plant Breeding (NAPB).

The NAPB Borlaug Scholarship Program strengthens the plant breeding profession by helping support attendance of future leaders at the NAPB Annual Meeting. Each Borlaug Scholar is paired with mentors who are members of NAPB and are committed to their professional development. Each recipient receives financial support for travel, lodging, and registration expenses for the NAPB Annual Meeting. 

Point of Pride: An IPBGG student has been selected as an NAPB Borlaug Scholar since 2018!

Presentation Awards at 2024 National Meetings

• Samuele Lamon, (Bertioli Lab) 
  1st place, Lightning Talk competition, FFAR

• Emile Barnes, (Bertioli Lab)
  1st place, Joe Suggs PhD competition, APRES

• Aasish Pokharel (Brown Lab)
  2nd place, MS poster competition, APRES 

• Yongjun Yue (Zhang Lab)
  2nd place, Ornamental plant breeding oral competition, ASHS

• Caitlin McCann (Chavez Lab)
  2nd place, MS oral, Southeastern Professional Fruit Workers Conference

• Rachel Rackers (Devos Lab)
  2nd place, Joint oral/poster competition, section C1, CSSA annual meeting

E. Broadus Browne Research Awards for Outstanding Graduate Student Research

The Broadus Browne Award is presented to outstanding master’s and doctorate students in the UGA College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences (CAES) based on both their research creativity and effective communication.  It is the highest recognition the college has for its best graduate students.

Institute students Sydney Webb (Ozias-Akins Lab) took 2nd place in the MS competition and Hallie Wright (Devos Lab) took 1st place in the PhD category.

John Ingle Innovation in Plant Breeding Awards

Dr. John Ingle, during his 25+ years of leadership at the UGA Research Foundation, created the Cultivar Development Research Program to support cultivar development, resulting in the highly successful plant breeding programs at UGA. The John Ingle Innovation in Plant Breeding Award is sponsored by the UGA Innovation Gateway to recognize Dr. Ingle’s contribution to plant breeding and to continue support for cultivar development at UGA.

This award provides students with funds for a small research project of their own.  Students compete by preparing a small proposal that gets critically reviewed, thus providing an opportunity to hone grantsmanship skills. 

Winning proposals for 2024: 

• Caitlin McCann - Development and Utilization of ASP Markers for Prunus persica (Peach) Genetic Diversity Studies (Chavez lab)

• Rachel Hill/Iago Schardong - Genome Assembly of Two Aerolate Mildew Pathogens in Cotton: Ramulariopsis gossyppii and Ramulariopsis pseudoglycines (Chee lab)

• Daniel Matusinec - Harnessing Novel Resources for Southern Stem Rot Resistance Outside of the Cultivated Peanut Primary Gene Pool (Bertioli lab)

• Sameer Pokhrel - Developing Drought-Tolerant and Aflatoxin-Resistant MAGIC Peanuts Using Drone-Assisted Selection (Ozias-Akins lab)

• John Bagwell, PhD (wheat breeding, Mergoum Lab)
  Currently: Christmas Tree Breeding Program Manager at North Carolina State 
• Eddie Beasley, PhD (cotton breeding, Chee Lab) 
  Currently: Technical Agronomist at Bayer Crop Science 
• Angel Brooks, MS (forage breeding & genetics. Missaoui Lab)
  Currently: Horticulturalist and Operations Technician at The Plant Peddler 
• Brianna Cheek, MS (peanut breeding and genetics, Ozias-Akins Lab)
  Currently: Scientist- Mint, Nuts, and Flavor at Mars 
• Brody Deaton, MS (Turf breeding, Raymer Lab)
  Currently: Research Professional, forages, at UGA 
• Kelly Goode, PhD (Nematology, Mitchum Lab)
  Currently: Postdoctoral fellow, Hudson-Alpha