I am currently a postdoctoral fellow at Dr. Ainong Shi's vegetable breeding and genetics program at the University of Arkansas, where I earned my Ph.D. degree. I am using genomic and molecular biology tools to explore and investigate qualitative and quantitative genetic variation of commercially important traits in vegetable crops. My main focus is on understanding and expanding the genetic resistance to downy mildew and other endemic diseases in spinach. We map the resistant loci and identify linked/associated genomic regions and markers. New markers identified are being validated and further used to introgress resistant genes and develop and release disease-resistant spinach cultivars. In addition, I am involved on genetic investigations to characterize biotic and abiotic stress tolerances in other vegetable crops like cowpea, common beans, and more recently on arugula and tomato.

I completed my MS in Plant Breeding at Dr. Shawn Mehlenbacher's hazelnut breeding and genetics lab at the Oregon State University. My MS research focused on developing new simple sequence repeat (SSR) or microsatellite markers, and I added more than 350 new SSR markers in hazelnut that researchers worldwide are now using. In addition, I gained experience in disease resistance breeding by studying and identifying new eastern filbert blight (EFB) resistance sources in hazelnut. I investigated the inheritance of EFB resistance from several cultivated and wild Corylus accessions from Serbia, Russia, China, Korea, and the USA. I assigned many of these resistant sources to linkage groups using SSR markers, constructed linkage maps for some of these sources, and developed linked markers.

Please see my Publication section for my work details, and more information is available on my Google Scholar, ResearchGate and LinkedIn profiles.