Register now!
2024 CSU Plant Adaptation Symposium
October 4th, 2024
CSU Lory Student Center
1101 Center Ave Mall, Fort Collins, CO 80521
University Ballroom
This year’s theme is “Cultivating Sustainable Solutions: Harnessing Genetic Diversity and Biotechnology in Plant Research”
The symposium will cover all aspects of plant adaptation from plant genetic diversity, molecular biology and biotechnology, and big data research spanning from field to lab
Poster registration is now open!
Contributed talk applications open for graduate students and post-docs now!
Featured Speakers
Dr. Thelma Madzima is an 1855 Associate Professor of Diversity and Data Science in the Department of Plant Biology at the Michigan State University. The overarching goal of her research program is to understand how epigenetic mechanisms facilitate growth, development, and response to abiotic stress stimuli in crop plants for the development of climate resistant crops to ensure that we can meet the increasing global food demand.
Dr. Phuong Dao is an Assistant Professor and the principal investigator of the Dao HyperAI Lab (Hyperspectral Remote Sensing & Agricultural Intelligence) in the Department of Agricultural Biology, Colorado State University. He is a remote sensing and geospatial scientist and a plant ecologist who is broadly interested in understanding how plant-disturbance interactions at the gene and species levels impact ecosystem functioning and biodiversity across spatial and temporal scales by integrating remote sensing, biochemical and genetic methods, biological modeling, and machine learning.
Dr. Karansher S. Sandhu (Karan), is a Soybean Product Development Scientist at Bayer Crop Sciences, where he is using his genomics, genetics, breeding, phenomics, data science, and machine learning skills to enhance genetic gain and product development in the North America soybean breeding pipeline. Karan has more than seven years of experience in plant breeding, genetics, genomics, and data science, working on multiple crops and projects with collaborators in the USA and other countries.
Dr. James Schnable is a Professor in the Department of Agronomy & Horticulture and the Nebraska Corn Checkoff Presidential Chair at the University of Nebraska - Lincoln. His research group focuses on the quantitative genetics and breeding of corn, sorghum, and other related crops. Using a combination of advanced genomic, phenomic and machine learning technologies his team is identifying specific genes in crops that improve both the agronomic properties and food quality/value of crop plants.
Dr. Dave Hessel is a Research Scientist in Seed Product Development-Wheat with Corteva Agriscience where he has been involved with leveraging new technologies and breeding strategies in both wheat and sorghum and is a team member on several projects focused on improving breeding and seed production. In 2023, Dave was recognized for his scientific contributions by being inducted into the Corteva Laureate community. He serves as the industry co-chair on the Wheat Genome Resource Center and has active collaborations with several universities. He also serves as mentor and advisor to several students and colleagues within and outside of Corteva. Dave is based out of the Wamego, KS. multi-crop research center.
Program
Registration and Abstract submission
Registration is now open!
Registration deadline : September 20th, 2024
Deadline for poster and contributed talk submission : September 20th, 2024
Travel
Accomodation
From I-25 - Take exit 269B for Mulberry Street towards Fort Collins. Drive west on Mulberry Street for about 4.5 miles. Turn left onto S College Avenue (US-287 N), then right onto W Laurel Street. The entrance to Colorado State University will be on your right.
From Denver International Airport - From DIA, head west on Peña Boulevard, then take E-470 North to I-25 North. Continue on I-25 North for 45 miles and take exit 269B for Mulberry Street towards Fort Collins. Drive west on Mulberry Street, turn left onto S College Avenue, then right onto W Laurel Street. Colorado State University entrance will be on your right. Total distance is approximately 70 miles, taking around 1.5 hours.
Best Western University Inn
Address: 914 S College Ave, Fort Collins, CO 80524
Distance: About 0.2 miles from CSU
Hilton Fort Collins
Address: 425 W Prospect Rd, Fort Collins, CO 80526
Distance: About 0.5 miles from CSU
Sponsors
Organizing Committee
Rae McDowell — Rae is an incoming PhD student in cell and molecular biology and just finished her masters in Horticulture at CSU. She leverages genomic tools to help increase the nutritional value of crops.
Mik Hammers — Mik is a third-year Ph.D. student in the Soil and Crop Sciences department studying wheat breeding and genetics. She is most interested in phenomics, machine learning, and wild relative introgressions.
Carlos Juarez Guzman — Carlos Juarez (he/him): Carlos is a PhD candidate in Cell in Molecular Biology, working in Dr. Cris Argueso’s lab on phytohormonal regulation of tomato fruit development. He is passionate about collaboration and leveraging expertise across diverse domains to increase crop yield.
Linly Banda — Linly is a postdoctoral researcher in the Rhodes lab, focusing on developing tools for molecular breeding for nutritional traits in sorghum. Her career goal is to develop improved crop varieties that contribute towards food nutrition and security in Sub-Saharan Africa.
Nneka Okereke — Nneka is a PhD student in the Soil and Crop Sciences Department at Colorado State University and a member of the Crop Adaptation Lab. Her research goal involves applying population genetic approaches to better understand the genetic architecture across sorghum breeding programmes to enhance the transfer of trait packages from public to private breeding programmes.
Patty Vail — Patricia is interested in the molecular mechanisms of abiotic stress, how resistance evolves and applying biotechnology tools to enhance plant adaptation. After developing molecular biology skills working at an agricultural gene-editing startup company, she decided to pursue a doctorate to explore these questions more deeply. She is now a PhD student in the Biological Sciences program working on modifying the fidelity of organellar polymerases with genome editing approaches.
Chad Soensken — Chad is a graduate student in the McKay laboratory, focusing on the genetic variation that enables plants to adapt to abiotic stressors. Chad’s research is focused on the genetics controlling root traits and their response to drought in maize and sorghum.
Carl VanGessel — Carl is a postdoctoral fellow in the Crop Adaptation Lab who’s focus is identifying host plant resistance to biotic threats of sorghum and cereals. He strives to bridge molecular and applied research using molecular evolution, pan-genomes, and quantitative genetics.