Annual Research Showcase

Botany and Plant Pathology Research Showcase

Wednesday, November 12, 2025
3:30-7:30 pm
Beck Agricultural Center, 4550 US-52, West Lafayette, IN

The 2025 Annual Research Showcase highlights findings that advance the Department of Botany and Plant Pathology’s mission to protect the environment, improve plants, and manage natural resources.

Click here to see photos from last year's event!

 

Transportation/shuttle schedule

   2:30pm Shuttle will be parked at Lilly Hall at the corner of Russell St. and Mitch Daniels Blvd.
   2:45pm Shuttle will depart from Lilly Hall and travel to the Beck Agricultural Center
   3:30pm Shuttle will depart from the Beck Center and travel to Lilly Hall
   4:15pm Shuttle will depart from Lilly Hall and travel to the Beck Agricultural Center
   7:30pm Shuttle will depart from the Beck Center and travel to Lilly Hall
   7:45pm Shuttle will end service at Lilly Hall

Schedule of Events

3:30-3:35 pm – Opening remarks

3:35-4:00 pm – Research lightning talks

4:00-5:00 pm – Poster viewing round 1 (odd-numbered posters)

5:00-5:30 pm – Research lightning talks

5:30-6:30 pm – Poster viewing round 2 (even-numbered posters)

6:30-7:30 pm – 2025 Weier Award Winner presentation and closing remarks 

Poster Presentations

 

1. Alex G. Acosta, Visiting Scholar: Estimation of incubation period and onset of corn Tar Spot under greenhouse conditions based on censored and Bayes analyses

3. Alex Mueth, MS Student: How Variable Application Rates of Soil Residual Herbicides Alter Solution Availability in Nonuniform Field Soils

5. Anthony L. Perretta, MS Student: Influence of Glufosinate Application Timing, Rate, and Mixtures on Glufosinate-Resistant Soybean (Glycine max)

7. Camila Rocco da Silva, PhD Student: Efficacy of omri-listed foliar fungicides on white mold control in organic soybean cultivars in Indiana

9. Chia-Ying Hsu, PhD Student: Investigating the Ecological Role of Specialized Fungal Materials in Shaping Bird Nest Microbiomes

11. Colin Kelly, BS Student: Using Histological Technique For the Study of Tomato Species Under Ralstonia solanacearum Colonization

13. Daniela Chacón-Argüello, MS Student: Systematics of Crossopsora and Crossopsorella

15. Dinh Nhan Lai, PhD Student: Dynamic auxin maxima regulate male-to-hermaphrodite conversion and de novo meristem formation in Ceratopteris gametophytes  

17. Edward Peña, Visiting Scholar: Evaluation of Fungicide Efficacy in Corn in Indiana

19. Elizabeth L. White, MS Student: Fungicide application efficacy on the prevention of Vascular Streak Dieback (VSD) of redbud over a two year period

21. Emanuel D. Santos S., MS Student: Automated Disease Phenotyping: Quantification of Corn Tar Spot Stromata Using In-Field Robotic Imaging

23. Emma J. Lagerhausen, MS Student: Tolerance of Soybean Lines to Saflufenacil

25. Faith E. McDevitt, BS Student: Mapping Flower Phenology to Improve Rapid ʻŌhiʻa Death Management

27. Grant D. Isaacs, MS Student: Investigation of Pyridate and HPPD-Inhibitor Mixtures in a Controlled Environment

29. Ivis Miranda, MS Student: Comparison of planting dates and seed treatments on soybean in Indiana.

31. Jada N. Davis, MS Student: Crop injury from postemergence applications of encapsulated saflufenacil is influenced by application time of day

33. Jean Paul Iyakaremye, PhD Student: Quantitative Trait Loci (QTL) Mapping for Protein Content, and Amino Acids in a Cowpea MAGIC Population

35. Jessie R. Lewis, MS Student: Influence of Application Time of Day and Weed Size on Glufosinate Efficacy in a Problematic Waterhemp Population.

37. Juan D. Peña, Visiting Scholar: Evaluating Biologicals for Tar Spot Management in Corn

39. Juan Diego Rojas-Gutierrez, PhD Student: Does heterosis increase with genetic distance or genomic load in natural populations?

41. Kamran Arshad, PhD Student: Mapping and functional validation of resistance genes against Colletotrichum sublineola in sorghum

43. Kathryn F. Dunham, BS Student: Does Microbial Exposure Affect Heterosis in Chamaecrista fasciculata?

45. Kathryn N. Maley, PhD Student: Digging up dirt on a mysterious root fungus: Elucidating life cycle stages of Rechingeriella boudieri

47. Maria Carolina Souza, PhD Student: Drone-Based Herbicide Applications for Managing Late-Season Burcucumber (Sicyos angulatus) in Corn

49. Mariah K. Cashbaugh, PhD Student: Utilizing Golf Green Drainage Water for Fungal DNA Detection and Monitoring

51. Mark Crooks, BS Student: Understanding the drought response of Quercus agrifolia

53. Menghui Liu, PhD Student: Transcriptional regulation in Arabidopsis shoot apical meristems

55. Monica S. Mizuno, PhD Student: Assessment of aerial drones for applying foliar fungicides to soybean in Indiana

57. Polina Mironova, PhD Student: Infection rate, density, and Diversity of Laboulbeniales on Aquatic Beetles (Hydrophilidae, Dytiscidae) of Indiana through Time

59. Sana A. Doty, PhD Student: Model for Resistance to Ralstonia solanacearum in Tomato.

61. Sowmiya Devi Venkatesan, PhD Student: Investigating the role of V-ATPase Accessory proteins in MLO-mediated pollen tube reception

63. Stephen C. Mills, PhD Student: Sequential Cold and Drought Interactions in Populus tremula x P. alba

65. Vijay Kunwar, PhD Student: Microbial community structure of root-knot nematode suppressive soils across organic vegetable farms in Indiana and Kentucky

67. Wily R. Sic-Hernandez, PhD Student: Exploring Tar Spot Microbiome Variation: A meta-analysis of sequencing data

69. Morgan Goodnight, PhD Student: Documenting red crown rot of soybean in Indiana

71. Abigail Rogers, PhD Student: Determining the functional domains of a Ralstonia solanacearum type III effector protein

2. Abigail N. Norsworthy, MS Student: Optimizing Weed Control with Diflufenican in Soybean: The Impact of Tillage and Application Timing on Soil Residual Activity

4. Abigayl Y. Novak, PhD Student: Major differences in the trigger of ABA catabolism across seed plants 

6. Adeline Dering, BS Student: Identification of Broad-Spectrum Resistance to Anthracnose Disease in Sorghum bicolor via Putative ARG7 Loci

8. Alexander Baena, PhD Student: Resolving the Phylogeny of Pucciniomycotina Through UCE Phylogenomics

10. Ava G. Barnes, MS Student: The Inside Man: Phenotypic Effects of Ralstonia solanacearum Type III Effector RipU^K60 Expressed in Arabidopsis thaliana

12. Chaeyeon Ro, PhD Student: Ethylene and ACC have contrasting roles in stabilizing ACS5 protein

14. Denise L. Caldwell, PhD Student: TBD

16. Elena Yu, BS Student: Persistence of Entomopathogenic Nematodes

18. Emilia Myers, MS Student: Assessing the Impact of Transitioning to Resilient Agricultural Systems on Crop Disease Risk

20. Emily A. Duncan, MS Student: Evaluation of Sulfur Fertilizers on Sudden Death Syndrome of Soybean

22. Emily Lancaster, PhD Student: How cold is cold enough?

24. Emma M. Horn, BS Student: The Effect of Lunar Regolith Simulant on Crop Development and Response to Microbes 

26. Emmanuel G. Cooper, PhD Student: Integration of Remote and Proximal Sensing Techniques for Site-Specific Weed Management

28. Emmeline R. Seest, BS Student: The Impact of Sugar on the Timing of Leaf Senescence

30. Harryson Avila, PhD Student: Root Architecture Breeding and Environment Sculpt Soybean Root Anatomy

32. Hasaruni Maduthya Ediriweera, MS Student: Checklist of Rust Fungi (Basidiomycota, Pucciniales) and their hosts in Sri Lanka

34. Ian M. Rimer, PhD Student: Temporally disjunct herbaceous species differ in leaf embolism resistance

36. Jack L. Bennink, MS Student: Impact of Mycorrhizal Associations on Whole-Tree Carbon Allocation

38. Justice Ruwona, PhD Student: Evaluating Interseeding Practices for Conversion of Golf Fairways to Bentgrass Cultivars with Improved Dollar Spot Resistance

40. Kay M. Annunziata, BS Student: Examining Bias in DNA Extraction of Surface Attached Soil Bacterial Communities

42. Lin Ye, PhD Student: Integrative Study on Sex Determination of Soybean Cyst Nematode and Screening of Resistant Soybean Cultivars

44. Lindsey Lorenz, BS Student: Exploring Natural Enemies of Coffee Leaf Rust

46. Luci E. Karakas, MS Student: Evaluating the Role of Osmotic Adjustment in Maize Yield Stability Under Drought Conditions 

48. MaKenzie R. Drowns, PhD Student: Exploring Stigma-Expressed MLO Function in Plant Reproduction

50. Marcelo Zimmer, PhD Student: Management of Herbicide-Resistant Waterhemp (Amaranthus tuberculatus (Moq.) J. D. Sauer) with Targeted Herbicide Application Technology

52. Maxwell M. Kahle, BS Student: Polarity establishment and cytoskeleton rearrangement in early cotton fiber development 

54. Malleswari Kachireddy, PhD Student-ECE: NASA Satellite and Regional Weather Data as Alternatives to On Ground Stations for Corn Tar Spot Modeling

56. Muhammad Haroon, MS Student: Grasses’s High Mechanical Advantage; Need For Speed of Grasses’s Stomata

58. Norah K. Snyder, BS Student: Understanding aboveground and belowground starch dynamics in grapevines under experimental drought

60. Samuel Mantel, Post Doctoral Researcher: Identification of candidate disease resistance proteins underlying local adaptation in locally adapted ecotypes of Arabidopsis thaliana

62. Thomas Lai, MS Student: Influence of Mowing Timing, Frequency, and Fungicide Application on Dollar Spot Severity and Turfgrass Quality on Creeping Bentgrass

64. Yijie Wang, PhD Student: N-Terminal Regulation of HAM Family Proteins in Plant Development

66. Xi Gong, PhD Student: NPR1 Suppresses Salicylic Acid- and N-Hydroxypipecolic Acid-Mediated Systemic Inhibition of Chloroplast Development

68. Jaiye Forth, BS Student: Bio solutions effect on Nematodes in Colombian Basin Potato Fields

70. Sendi Mejia Jimenez, PhD Student: Investigating the Density and Organization of Microtubules During Plant-Triggered Immunity

72. Estevan Cason, MS Student: Herbicide Programs for Weed Management in Early-Planted Soybean