Rice: Research to Production - 2008 Course Participants

Eok-Keun Ahn

Mohammad Hossain Bhuyan Anowar

Jessica Bagdonis

NSF-sponsored Participant

A doctoral candidate for a dual-title degree in agricultural and extension education and comparative and international education at Penn State University. Her research interests include agricultural knowledge transfer, sustainable agricultural development, and international development. Prior to returning to graduate school, she was a Senior Program Manager at IREX (International Research & Exchanges Board) in Washington, DC. In this position, she was responsible for overseeing the administration of several U.S. Department of State funded programs in the countries of the former Soviet Union. She earned a master's in Rural Sociology from Penn State University and a bachelor's degree in Law & Society with a minor in Russian Studies from American University in Washington, DC.

Alan Chambers

NSF-sponsored Participant

Born in Utah, but spent most of his young life growing up in Springfield, VA divided up with a few years in both Greece and Germany. Alan is the second son of Craig and Rosemary Chambers gaining his work ethic from his father, and unique sense of humor from his mother. Alan graduated from West Springfield High School in 2000, and continued his education at Brigham Young University that same year. He took a two year deferment (2001-3) from his studies to serve a full time mission in Phoenix for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Alan married Sandi McQuade soon after returning from Phoenix and they are currently the proud parents of three amazingly wonderful children; Sheila, Aaron, and Kiara. Currently, Alan is pursuing an MS/PhD in Plant Pathology at Cornell University. He acknowledges his time spent overseas, in Phoenix, and during his formal education as a great opportunity not just for scholastic achievement, but as an opportunity to enjoy and appreciate various cultures and backgrounds. The Rice Research to Production course will obviously provide another great opportunity to broaden his cultural education.

Erica Chernoh

NSF-sponsored Participant

Erica Chernoh grew up in Northern California and has had an interest in sustainable agriculture for some time, particularly as it relates to food security and hunger in developing countries. Erica received a Bachelor's degree in Physical Geography from Humboldt State University in 1999 where she discovered a passion for soil science and agriculture through her coursework and volunteer work at a local organic farm. Following completion of her degree, she joined the Peace Corps and worked as an Integrated Pest Management volunteer in a Mayan village in the highlands of Guatemala. Upon returning from Guatemala in 2002, Erica began working for California Certified Organic Farmers, first as a Certification Associate, and eventually as an Organic Farm Inspector. As an inspector she had the opportunity to inspect large, medium and small-scale organic farms, as well as post harvest handling facilities, throughout California and Mexico. In 2006, Erica returned to Guatemala to work on a post-Hurricane Stan agricultural reconstruction/agroforestry project. Erica conducted land surveys, and created farm plans with campesinos to implement soil conservation practices, including the use of live and dead barriers, cover crops, and reforestation techniques. Currently, Erica is working on a Masters of Science in International Agricultural Development at the University of California Davis. Erica comes to the IRRI short course from China where she is conducting her thesis research which focuses on the links between land use change, soil degradation, and food safety and security in paddy rice systems. Erica looks forward to the opportunity to study all aspects of lowland rice production, and hopes to take what she learns at IRRI and apply it to her research in China.

Warshi Dandeniya

Warshi is a first year PhD student in the field of Soil and Crop Sciences at Cornell. I am from Sri Lanka, where I did my bachelors on agriculture and masters on environmental soil science at University of Peradeniya. After graduation, I joined Faculty of Agriculture of University of Peradeniya as a lecturer in soil microbiology and now I am in my study leaves to accomplish my PhD. Research work for my degree will focus on rhizosphere microbiology of rice as affected by changing irrigation management with special attention to organisms involve in nitrogen cycle.

Nilufa Ferdous

Amy Daniels

NSF-sponsored Participant

Amy is a landscape ecologist interested in how food production systems fit into the broader socio-economic and physical landscape; she is particularly interested in evaluating tradeoffs in landscape-level ecosystem services. Most of Amy's professional and research experience has been in Latin America, including an agricultural development consultancy for USAID in El Salvador. Having worked with rice growers for part of her Master's research, Amy is excited about this opportunity to compare rice cultivation in the Philippines and to learn from the diversity of experiences represented by course participants.

Amy will graduate with her PhD in Interdisciplinary Ecology in August of 2008. Her dissertation research was conducted on the transformation of land-use practices in Costa Rica, funded by a NASA Research Fellowship.

Jeffrey A. Detras

Caleb Dresser

Caleb Dresser has just finished his third year at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. After the short course, he will be traveling to Modipuram, India to conduct studies on nematode density in aerobic rice fields under a variety of management practices. This work will be conducted in collaboration with Dr. J.K. Lad ha and Dr. V. Kumar of the IRRI-India office in New Delhi. Upon the completion of this work, he will be returning to Cornell for one semester to complete his degree in Biology & Society. Caleb's past research has included work in mouse recombination genetics at The Jackson Laboratory in Maine, lepidopteran evolutionary genetics at Cornell, and Hawksbill sea turtle conservation with the U.S. National Park Service in Hawaii. Caleb loves the outdoors; he enjoys teaching hiking and cross-country skiing, and devotes time to local environmental groups. He is also interested in learning about the world and its people - travels have included Belize, the United Kingdom, Costa Rica, and France.

Tim Durham

NSF-sponsored Participant

Tim is a lifelong agriculturalist. His family operates Deer Run Farm - a 30 acre vegetable farm on Long Island, New York. They grow an array of spinach, cabbage, and ethnic lettuce for wholesale in New York City. As one of a handful of farms in the area, it faces unique challenges, especially those associated with urban-edge agriculture. Tim has a keen interest in the interplay between science, sustainability, and policymaking. After graduating from Cornell University with a B.S. in Plant Science, he worked in various levels of state and federal government while continuing to work seasonally at the farm. He has served as an adjunct at the Hudson Institute's Center for Global Food Issues since 2003. In 2004, Tim was awarded a Rotary Foundation Ambassadorial Scholarship for study at Lincoln University, New Zealand. Upon his return he enrolled in the Plant Medicine program at UF, a professional doctorate intended to parallel a D.V.M or M.D. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) awarded Tim a fellowship in 2005. In the summer of 2006, he was a visiting fellow at Los Alamos National Lab, working in the arena of crop security with Dr. Nate McDowell. From 2005-2006 Tim was the TA for the crop science lab course. He also gave animated guest lectures on the promise and pitfalls of crop biotechnology to undergraduate students.

Lorena Pedro Francisco

Nicolas Gosman

Gatsby-sponsored Participant

Courtney Jahn

NSF-sponsored Participant

I am in the final year of my PhD in the Department of Plant Pathology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. To date, my research has focused on the microbial aspect of plant-microbe interactions. My masters' work focused on Crenarchaeota, a division of nonthermophilic Archaea, from plant roots. The intractable nature of mesophilic crenarchaeotes has impeded the understanding of their role in plant and soil biology and our work was the first reported evidence for growth of this organism in culture. My PhD has focused on studying molecular components that contribute to the virulence and overall fitness of bacterial pathogens. I study the role of biofilm formation and motility in bacterial life cycles in enteric animal and plant pathogens, including Salmonella enterica and the tropical phytopathogen Dickeya dadantii (formerly Erwinia chrysanthemi). In the fall of 2005 I had the unique opportunity to take a tropical plant pathology course. As part of this course we spent two weeks in Guatemala visiting banana and coffee plantations, sugar cane fields and processing facilities to learn about large scale tropical agriculture, as well as Mayan towns to learn about the Milpa agricultural system. Seeing first hand the devastation caused by plant diseases in the tropics was instrumental in redirecting my career path towards an area where I can work on disease control and technology transfer in regions in great need of agricultural improvement.

Janelle Jung

NSF-sponsored Participant

Janelle Jung is a first-year graduate student in the Department of Plant Breeding and Genetics at Cornell University, and is interested in international agriculture and the intersection of science and society. She received her B.A. degree in biology and English in 2004 from Mount Holyoke College. Janelle was born and raised in Honolulu, Hawai'i and would eventually like to return there to work on the agricultural system and public understanding of plant breeding and biotechnology. Having never visited rice farming areas before, she is delighted to finally get an in-depth look on how her native starch is bred, grown, and harvested.

Yusuke Kakei

Abubakary Athuman Kijoji

Bon-il Ku

Anne A. Limsuan

Maylin M. Punzalan

Margaret Mangan

NSF-sponsored Participant

I am a graduate student in the department of Agronomy and Plant Genetics at the University of Minnesota. My thesis research pertains to the establishment and productivity of perennial prairie species and their utility as a feedstock for bio-energy systems. I enjoy traveling and over the past few years have been learning Spanish and traveling in Latin America. I also enjoy running and spending time outdoor (when the weather permits). I have lived in Minneapolis, MN for three years and love the cultural and culinary scene.

Siti Norsuha Binti Misman

Leilani A. Nora

Syamsidah Rahmawati

Melanie Sanborn

NSF-sponsored Participant

A second year Master's student in the Department of Agriculture and Extension Education at The Pennsylvania State University. She is originally from New Hampshire where she completed her undergraduate degree in Agriculture Education at the University of New Hampshire. Melanie is conducting her thesis research on the Perceptions and Knowledge of High School Agriculture Students in International Agriculture Concepts. While at Penn State, she is also completing her secondary teacher certification in agriculture. Melanie plans to graduate in August and teach high school agriculture in Pennsylvania next fall.

Stacey Simon

NSF-sponsored Participant

Stacey Simon received a B.S. in Biology from Delaware State University, in 2001 and a Ph.D. in Plant Pathology, Physiology, and Weed Science from Virginia Tech in 2007. She is currently a Post-doctoral researcher at the University of Delaware. Her current research focuses on the analysis of the epigenome of rice. Genes important to chromatin or RNA-directed DNA modifications are assessed for impact on the regulation and mechanism of chromatin modifications in rice. Another area of interest is to explore potential gene regulatory roles for small RNAs (sRNAs) in rice in response to infection by fungal pathogens Magnaporthe oryzae and fusarium and to characterize the pathogen-related sRNAs in Magnaporthe oryzae and fusarium.

Natalia Stawniak

Gatsby-sponsored Participant

Edward P. Wilhelm

Gatsby-sponsored Participant