I am glad to share that I'm setting up shop at the Department of Plant Science & Landscape Architecture in the College of Agriculture and Natural Resources. After 5 years working in industry, I'm happy to come back to Academia and do what I like the most: SCIENCE! I'm looking forward to mentoring students and postdocs and do groundbreaking research unraveling the secrets of plant development and applying that knowledge in applications for trait development and breeding in Vegetables and Ornamentals. 

Stay put for more news, as I hope to be able to open my lab for positions soon!

This pas week we transplanted our tomatoes in the field. This is the first field season as PI and it felt like a dream come true. We have transplanted an interesting collection of materials, from CRISPR mutants to wild species, pre-breeding lines to heirlooms! These materials will set the foundation for the lab research in the coming year(s). 

I want to shoutout to the undergrads Eric, Max (Junchi), Jordan and Gavin; to Elsa (lab tech) and three grad students from the Qi lab (Joey, Innocent & Josh). They were super helpful and worked hard to get the plants in the field. I also want to thank Donald Murphy and the Upper Marlboro research station crew for their help setting up the field and taking care of the plants.

Stay put for future news on these tomatoes!