Students receive awards at 10th annual Texas A&M Plant Breeding Symposium

More than 150 faculty, staff and students participated in the 10th annual Texas A&M Plant Breeding Symposium, which is part of the Corteva Symposia Series. We also had several students who presented their research in poster or oral presentation competitions. We also had three students from other universites who were awarded travel scholarships who presented their research. Congratulations to all our winners!

Undergraduate Oral Presentation

• Chris Barron. Barron is a senior plant and environmental soil science major.

Graduate Oral Presentations (Based on score)

• First place: Serina DeSalvio. DeSalvio is a doctoral student majoring in genetics who is supervised by David Stelly, Ph.D.
• Second place: Pradip Sapkota. Sapkota is a doctoral student majoring in plant breeding, supervised by William Rooney, Ph.D.
• Third place: Amaka Ifeduba. Ifeduba is a doctoral student who is majoring in horticulture.

Poster Competition - Graduate Category:

• First Place: Teja Vengala. Vengala is a master’s student majoring in plant breeding who is supervised by Russell Jessup, Ph.D.
• Second Place: Bal Maharjan. Maharjan is a doctoral student majoring in plant breeding who is supervised by Sakiko Okumoto, Ph.D.
• Third Place: Kayla Beechinor and Isaac Juarez.  Beechinor is a doctoral student majoring in plant breeding who is supervised by William Rooney, Ph.D. Juarez is a doctoral student majoring in toxicology.

Poster Competition - Undergraduate Category:

• First Place: Jarred Lake. Lake is a senior horticulture major.
• Second Place: Rachel Yeum. Yeum is a senior bioenvironmental sciences major.
• Third Place: Sam Webb. Webb is a student at the University of Texas at Austin.

Travel Scholars:

Three students from other universities who received travel scholarships sponsored by Corteva to present their research during the morning session. Each student presented a 10-minute talk on their topic followed by five minutes for the audience to ask questions.

The students were:

• Justin Pitts, University of Florida
• Kajal Gupta, Louisiana State University
• Sheryl Sierra, University of Nebraska-Lincoln