I graduated from West Virginia University with a Bachelors of Science and a Doctorate in Biology. My PhD research, which I completed in the laboratory of my advisor Dr. Stephen DiFazio, had a community genetics emphasis and explores the effects of a host plant's genes on assemblages and distributions of herbivore insects, pollinators, and pathogens in Poplar and Willow trees. Currently, I am a postdoctoral researcher at West Virginia University in the Department of Biology.
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Key Skills:
Next Gen Sequencing Core Technician, DNA and RNA library preparation, R, Field Technician Key Interests:
plant and community genetics, entomology, pollinator biology, quantitative ecology |
11 April, 2022
I'm having a great time germinating garden plants in the WVU Tech greenhouse! We have wildflowers, sunflowers, Four O-clock seedlings, various spices (catnip, oregano, cilantro, dill), butternut squash, miniature white pumpkins, and Jack O'lantern pumpkins. The WVU Tech Biology Club will be doing a free give away of our plants in the library next week! |
01 December, 2021
Check out our recent publication in Global Change Biology - Bioenergy where we explored nitrification dynamics in the rhizosphere of energy sorghum! Nitrification is a process performed by soil microbes that produces nitrate, which can then leach out of the soil and degrade the quality of groundwater. Sorghum has some interesting effects on those microbes in the rhizosphere (narrow region of soil directly surrounding roots), which we studied in 2018 and 2019 at the University of Illinois Energy Farm. This is my first collaboration and publication with Dr. Mark Burnham. The open access article can be found here- https://doi.org/10.1111/gcbb.12917 |
29 October, 2021
The WVU Tech hosts a Trunk-or-Treat right on campus which was a perfect opportunity for us to test out our Pumpkin Jamboree show before our neighborhood trick-or-treating. We had a blast and must have given out candy to over 300 kids! The Biology club organizes the event every year and they did a fantastic job! |
06 September, 2021
We got a beautiful day to collect willow leaves at the Morris Creek Watershed! I am planning on establishing several sampling sites in southern West Virginia to continue my pollinator work next spring. I'm interested to see how the insect community here compares to the work I completed for my dissertation in the WVU Core Arboretum. |
04 May, 2021
The third chapter of my dissertation "Characterization of Salix nigra floral insect community and activity of three native Andrena bees" has been accepted and published in the Wiley journal Ecology and Evolution! You can check it out here- https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.7369 |
4 August, 2020 My dissertation has been accepted at the WVU library which was my final step for graduation! I also just found out the University has a dashboard that shows how many times and where in the world my dissertation has been downloaded. |
27 April, 2020
The first chapter of my dissertation has been accepted and published in the Wiley journal Ecology and Evolution! We had an excellent experience with the editors and reviewers, who helped us to improve our models and bring the final version of my manuscript "Host plant genetic control of associated fungal and insect species in a Populus hybrid cross" to public and scientific audiences. Check it out here- DOI: 10.1002/ece3.6266 |
24 June, 2019
I had a lot of interesting disease and pest conversations at this evenings poster session at the IUFRO Tree Biotechnology Meeting. There are several free student-friendly guides to diseases and pests of Populus to start identifying some of the insects and fungi in plantation sites or even your own backyard trees. The two that I started out with for my plantation surveys include the USDA's "A Guide to Insect, Disease, and Animal Pests of Poplars" and the Canadian Forest Service (CFS) diagnostic manual "Diseases of Populus in British Columbia". The USDA guide is a wonderful resource for common insect pests and the CFS manual has some very detailed information and images of common fungal diseases and even a few insects whose symptoms may imitate fungal pathogens. If you haven't heard of these guides and are a fan of Poplar/Cottonwood trees I would recommend checking them out! |