Broadcast Date: October 22, 2024 | 12:00pm - 2:00pm Central
This webinar is organized by the Early Career Professionals Committee.
Please note that this webinar is live only. No recording or presentation slides will be available after the completion of the webinar.
Webinar Summary
The Early Career Professionals Committee received an exceptionally diverse and competitive number of Schroth applications. As a result, we would like to highlight four additional early career scientists to speak at this webinar version of the Schroth Faces of the Future Symposium. Each speaker will highlight their research in the field of bacteriology and will provide novel perspectives on the plant disease epidemiology and ecology; plant-microbe interaction; disease emergence and evolution; and physiology of plant-associated bacteria.
Learning Objectives
This session will have a broad range of interesting topics for the audience. Attendees will learn about:
- plant-microbe interaction
- disease emergence and evolution
- physiology of plant-associated bacteria and approaches to manage bacterial diseases
About the Presenters
Dr. Samuel Martins
University of Florida | Dr. Samuel Martins is an Assistant Professor at the University of Florida where he has been working since 2020 with a 50% research and 50% teaching appointment. His strong passion for teaching has led to multiple recognitions, including at the international level with the NACTA Educator Award this year. Dr. Martins’ lab research focuses on investigating the structure and function of bacteria in the phytobiome and their impact on plant health. His research program has been recognized in the last four years with multiple multi-state awards that sum up to over $4 million. |
Rishi Bhandari
USDA-ARS | Rishi Bhandari Ph.D., is a Postdoctoral Fellow at the USDA-ARS Biological Control of Insect Microbiome Laboratory in Columbia, Missouri. He holds a B.S. in Agriculture from Tribhuvan University and an M.S. and Ph.D. in Plant Pathology from Auburn University. His doctoral research used metagenomics and machine learning to study microbial communities in tomatoes and peppers, focusing on bacterial leaf spot disease and climate change impacts. At the Insect Microbiome Lab, he investigates how microbial communities affect insect pest control, focusing on environmental influences and their effects on pest performance using machine learning and statistical modeling. |
Aastha Subedi
Cornell University | Aastha Subedi originally from Nepal, completed her B.Sc. in Agricultural Sciences at Tribhuvan University, where she was honored as the gold medalist. In 2017, she received a prestigious Erasmus Mundus scholarship from the European Union to pursue an MS in Plant Health and Sustainable Agriculture in Spain and Italy. She earned her PhD in Plant Pathology from the University of Florida in Spring 2024 under the supervision of Drs. Erica M. Goss, Jeffrey B. Jones, and Pamela D. Roberts, focusing her research on the population genomics of Xanthomonas strains associated with bacterial spot-on pepper. Recently, Dr. Subedi began a position as a Postdoctoral Researcher at Cornell University, where she continues to advance agricultural sustainability through innovative research in the field of plant pathology. |
Devanshi Khokhani
University of Minnesota | Devanshi Khokhani is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Plant Pathology at the University of Minnesota. As a plant microbiologist/bacteriologist, her research focuses on bacterial pathogens affecting vegetable crops and beneficial microbes like mycorrhizal fungi and nitrogen-fixing bacteria. Her work aims to develop sustainable solutions for agriculture by studying plant-microbiome interactions. Devanshi’s research program seeks to guide disease management and improve crop nutrient uptake through collaborative efforts at the university and national levels while also fulfilling her teaching and service commitments. |
