2024

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University of Georgia Graduates

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Student Awards and Accomplishments

AGRICULTURAL AND APPLIED ECONOMICS

Dr. Yanqxuan Liu, Faculty Advisor

Kelvin Kwadjo Bobbie (MS)
- Outstanding M.S. Student, Department of Agricultural and Applied Economics, University of Georgia, 2024

 

ANIMAL AND DAIRY SCIENCE

Dr. Jennifer Tucker, Faculty Advisor

Brooke Stefancik (PhD)
- 2024 Student Award, North American Alfalfa Improvement Conference
- 2024 Graduate Student Award, 2024 World Food Prize Borlaug Dialogue Conference
- 2024 Forage and Grassland Foundation Grant, AFGC Conference

 

CROP AND SOIL SCIENCES

Dr. Nino Brown, Faculty Advisor

Aasish Pokharel (MS)
- 2nd Place M.S. Poster Presentation at the 2023 American Peanut Research and Education Society (APRES) Meeting

Dr. Cristiane Pilon, Faculty Advisor

Kelvin Jimmy Awori (PhD)
- 2nd Place. PhD Student Oral Competition titled “Photosynthetic Performance of Wild-Derived and Cultivated Peanuts under Heat Stress” at the American Society of Agronomy (ASA) Southern Regional Branch Meeting. Atlanta, GA. Feb. 2024
-2nd Place. Graduate Student Oral Competition titled “Photosynthetic Thermotolerance in Wild Genotypes and Cultivated Peanuts” at the Crop Science
Society of America C-2 Division. ASA/CSSA International Annual Meeting. St. Louis, MO. Nov. 2023
- Recipient of the 2024 CAES World Food Prize Travel Award to attend the Norman E. Borlaug Dialogue Conference in Des Moines, Iowa, October 29-31, 2024
- Recipient of UGA graduate School Travel Grant and UGA CRSS Departmental Travel Grant to attend the Tri society (CSA, CSSA, SSSA) Conference in San
Antonio, TX, Nov. 10-13, 2024

Morgan Sysskind (MS)
- 1st Place. MS Student Poster Competition at the American Society of Agronomy (ASA) Southern Regional Branch Meeting. Atlanta, GA. Feb. 2024

Dr. Wes Porter, Faculty Advisor

Miller Hayes (MS)
- 2nd Place. MS Student Oral Competition at the American Society of Agronomy (ASA) Southern Regional Branch Meeting. Atlanta, GA. Feb. 2024

Dr. Eric Prostko, Faculty Advisor

Nick Shay (PhD)
- 3rd Place Ph.D. Oral Presentation at the 2023 American Peanut Research and Education Society (APRES) Meeting

Dr. John Snider, Faculty Advisor

Josh Lee (PhD)
- 1st Place; Crop/weed situation and recommendations event. Southern Weed Science Contest in Blacksburg, VA, August 7, 2024
- Gerald O. Mott Meritorious Graduate Student Award in Crop Science. Crop Science Society of America, March 2024

Dr. George Vellidis, Faculty Advisor

Emily Bedwell (PhD)
- Recipient of the Outstanding Graduate Student Award from the International Society of Precision Agriculture at the International Conference on Precision
Agriculture held in Manhattan, Kansas
- Selected to participate in the International Soil Moisture School in Budapest, Hungary. She was one of only three graduate students in the United States awarded a Fulbright scholarship that covered her travel expenses
- Invited to present her research at the Precision Farming Workshop held at the Universidade Federal de Lavras (UFLA) in Minas Gerais, Brazil

 

ENTOMOLOGY

Dr. Apurba Barman, Faculty Advisor

Shivakumar Veerlapati (PhD)
- 3rd Place at the Georgia Entomological Society (GES) for the best portrait insect photography-2024
- 1st Place at the H.O. Lund Club week insect photo competition-2024
- Awarded Travel Grant (700$) from the Grad School to attend the National ESA meeting at Pheonix, Arizona-2024

 

HORTICULTURE

Dr. Ye (Juliet) Chu, Faculty Advisor

Emily Walter (MS)
- 2024 Ball Horticultural and Healy Horticulture Scholarship to attend the 2024 Southeastern Plant Symposium in Raleigh, NC in June 2024
- 2nd Place oral competition titled “Development of a Tissue Culture Approach for Doubling the Ploidy Level of Blueberry Varieties” at the ASHA Conference in Honolulu, HI in September 2024

Dr. Zilfina Rubio-Ames, Faculty Advisor

Lilian Carcamo (PhD)
- 1st Place in the 2024 Plant Growth Regulation oral competition at ASHS, her talk was titled “Ethephon Effect of Blooming in Three Southern highbush Cultivars”

 

NESPAL/IPBGG

Dr. Peggy Ozias-Akins, Faculty Advisor

Stephanie Botton (MS)
- 2024 Borlaug Scholarship
- 3rd Place in Joe Sugg MS oral competition titled “Exploring Peanut Root-Knot Nematode Resistance in Arachis cardenasii Introgressed Cultivated Peanut’ at the 2023 American Peanut Research and Education Society (APRES), July 2023, Oklahoma City, OK

Sameer Pokhrel (PhD)
- Awarded the 2024 John Ingle Innovation in Plant Breeding award, July 2024

Sydney Webb (MS)
- 2nd Place MS poster competition at the 2024 IPBGG Annual Retreat
- 2nd Place 2024 Broadus Browne MS competition

Dr. Peng Chee, Faculty Advisor

Rachel Hill (MS)
- Awarded the 2024 John Ingle Innovation in Plant Breeding award, July 2024

Iago Schardong (MS)
- Awarded the 2024 John Ingle Innovation in Plant Breeding award, July 2024

 

PLANT PATHOLOGY

Dr. Sudeep Bag, Faculty Advisor

Dalvir Kaur Dhadly (PhD)
- Received a summer research grant from the Graduate School, UGA, to support her research on whitefly-transmitted viruses. The results of this study were recently published in Plant Disease

Surendra E Reddy (PhD)
- Awarded the Herzog Fellowship for 2025 to continue his research on virus diseases on cotton in GA. This fellowship is named for Gary Allen Herzog, a UGA scientist who dedicated his life to entomology and the cotton industry. This fellowship is awarded to a graduate student conducting research in the cotton production addressing critical issues in applied research facing the industry, such as integrated pest management and irrigation technology

Bhavya Shukla (PhD)
- Secured Southern SARE Graduate Student Grant “Development of novel management tool to mitigate spotted wilt disease”. These grants strive to prepare the next generation of scientists to research sustainable solutions to the challenges farmers and ranchers face daily

Dr. Tim Brenneman, Faculty Advisor

Jessica Bell (PhD)
- 2nd Place in the Graduate Student Research Competition at the Southern Division APS annual meeting in Charleston, SC in February

Lucinda McEachin (MS)
- 2nd place in the M. S. Oral Presentation category at the 2024 annual meeting of the American Peanut Research and Education Society meeting in Savannah, GA in July

Dr. Alejandra Jimenez Madrid, Faculty Advisor

Carlton Collins (MS)
- Awarded the APS Foundation Student Travel Grant for Plant Health 2024 from The American Phytopathological Society

 

WARNELL SCHOOL OF FORESTRY

Dr. Elizabeth McCarty, Faculty Advisor

Cassandra Waldrop (MS)
- 1st place MS student Oral Presentation titled "Investigation of imidacloprid-based hemlock management on southern Appalachian larval stream salamander and macroinvertebrate populations" 16-18 July 2024. Greenville, SC

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Faculty and Staff Achievements

AGRICULTURAL AND APPLIED ECONOMICS

Dr. Esendugue Greg Fonsah

• 2023-2024-President: USDA S-1088 Multi-State Research Group S-1088 "Specialty Crops and Food Systems: Exploring Markets, Supply Chains and Policy
  Dimensions"
• 2023-2024: President-Elect: Food Distribution Research Society (FDRS), USA.
• 2023- Frank Panyko Distinguished Service Award, Food Distribution Research Society (FDRS), Crystal City Marriott at Reagan National Airport, Washington DC, November 12-14.
• 2023: Invited Guest Speaker at the 2023 Institute of National Transformation (INT) International Strategic Transformation and Empowerment Platform (STEP) Agripreneurship: The Key to Africa’s Development Conference, Uyo, Akwa Ibom State, Nigeria (October 20-29).
• 2024- Nominated External Assessor for Promotion &Tenure (Assistant Professor to Associate Professor): Dalhousie University, Canada.

Dr. Yangxuan Liu

• Southern Ag Today Viewership Award, 2024 with the article “ U.S. Cotton Export and Global Market Share Declined in 2023”.
• Emerging Leader Award, Farm Foundation, 2024.

CROP AND SOIL SCIENCES

Dr. Lisa Baxter

• Recipient of the American Forage and Grassland Council Merit Award in recognition of her superior contributions to forage and grassland agriculture.

Dr. Bill Branch

• Inducted into the Georgia Agricultural Hall of Fame. Over his career, Dr. Branch has released 31 elite peanut cultivars and five improved germplasm lines and populations for use by fellow plant breeders.

Dr. Camp Hand

• Recipient of the 2024 Beltwide Extension Cotton Specialist of the Year at the Beltwide Cotton Conference.

Dr. Glen Harris, Professor Emeritus

• Recipient of the Georgia Peanut Research and Education Award. January 2024

Dr. W. Scott Monfort

• Recipient of the Corteva™ Agriscience Award for Excellence in Education awarded at the 2023 American Peanut Research and Education Society (APRES) Meeting.

Dr. Cristiane Pilon

• Recipient of the 2024 Early Career Award in Research at the ASA Southern Regional Branch Meeting.
• Recipient of the 2024 APRES Bailey Award for the best overall presentation/paper of 2023 American Peanut Research and Education Society (APRES) Meeting.
• Recipient of the Crop Science Associate Editor Award for outstanding service in 2023.

Dr. John Snider

• Recipient of the 2023 D.W. Brooks Faculty Award for Excellence in Research

Dr. R. Scott Tubbs

• Recipient of the Corteva™ Agriscience Award for Excellence in Research awarded at the 2023 American Peanut Research and Education Society (APRES) Meeting.

ENTOMOLOGY

Dr. Apurba Barman

• Recipient of the "Outstanding Presentation" award at the Southeastern Pecan Grower Association Annual Convention held on 23-24 February 2024, Biloxi, MS.

PLANT PATHOLOGY

Dr. Albert Culbreath

• Recipient of the 2024 Peanut Research and Education Award by the American Peanut Council.

Gabriel Munoz

• Awarded the Outstanding Performance Award 2024 from the Department of Plant Pathology - Tifton campus

POULTRY SCIENCE

Dr. Claudia Dunkley

• Two USAID Farmer to Farmer Poultry Projects, first in Chipata, Zambia and the second for poultry producers in Petauke Province. PURPOSE: Train executive members of the largest Farmers Association in Zambia in poultry feed processing from ingredients produced in their region and second to train poultry producers in poultry production.
• Competitive Grants Awards: 2023- Co-PI: Two grants successfully funded for a total of $2,297,534.00.
• Recognition Award: The Jamaica Agricultural Society, “Phenomenal Woman” award for outstanding contribution to the development of Agri-Education and Training.
  

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Poster Symposium Participants

PARTICIPANT	DEPT	DEGREE	PROFESSOR/ADVISOR
Acharya, Nirmala	HORT	PhD	McAvoy
Acharya, Rajendra	ENTO	POST DOC	Barman
Adegbenro, Comfort	CRSS	PhD	Snider
Afroz,Tania	PATH	POST DOC	Chowdhury
Ankomah,Godfred	CRSS	PhD	Sintim
Awori, Kelvin Jimmy	CRSS	PhD	Pilon
Barbosa, Marcelo	HORT	POST DOC	Oliveira
Bedwell, Emily Kranz	CRSS	PhD	Vellidis
Bhogireddy, Sailaja	HORT	POST DOC	Ozias-Akins
Botton, Stephanie	PBGG	MS	Ozias-Akins-TAP
Bredu, Emmanuella	CRSS	MS	Snider
Cardon, Carlos Henrique	HORT	POST DOC	Ozias-Akins
Chowdhury, Bonna	PATH	MS	Chowdhury
Collins, Carlton	PATH	MS	Jimenez-Madrid
Dhadley, Dalvir	PATH	PhD	Bag
Edula, Surendra	PATH	PhD	Bag
Garcia dos Santos, Regimar	HORT	PhD	Oliveira
Jaganathan, Deepa	HORT	POST DOC	Nankar
Jannat, Jasia	CRSS	PhD	Vellidis
Kaur, Navjot	PATH	POST DOC	Dutta
Koirala, Madhov	ENTO	MS	Barman
Koirala, Santosh	PATH	PhD	Dutta
Kumar, Manish	PATH	POST DOC	Bag
Kumar, Mohit	CRSS	MS	Snider
Kumari, Manisha	HORT	POST DOC	McAvoy
Lamichhane, Anuj	PATH	MS	Dutta
Lee, Joshua Mark	CRSS	PhD	Snider
Lubbers, Michaela Rose	CRSS	MS	Jennifer Thompson (Athens)
Maktabi, Sara	CRSS	PhD	Vellidis
Malik, Anoop	PATH	POST DOC	Dutta
Mphande, Kephas	PATH	POST DOC	Dutta
Muraka, Chaitanya Lakshmi	PATH	PhD	Oliver
Muruo, Rose	PBGG	PhD	Ozias-Akins
Musah, Swabir	CRSS	PhD	Sintim
Nalajala, Sindoora	PBGG	PhD	Chu
Nugraha, Gema	PBGG	MS	Ozias-Akins
Owolanke, Taiwo	HORT	PhD	Deltsidis
Pokharel, Aasish	PBGG	MS	Brown, Nino
Pokhrel, Sameer	PBGG	PhD	Ozias-Akins
Poudel, Nabin	PATH	MS	Chowdhury
Stefancik, Brooke	ADSC	PhD	Tucker
Talat, Bukhtaawer	PBGG	PhD	Chee
Thomas, Noel	HORT	MS	Nankar
Veerlapati, Shivakumar	ENTO	PhD	Barman

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