'The Scoop' from our Department Head |
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It was wonderful celebrating the Department of Plant and Microbial Biology at our most recent ice cream social! The event was a fantastic opportunity to highlight the department's many achievements over the past year, welcome new members, and reconnect with colleagues. This newsletter offers more details on those accomplishments, along with updates on research, teaching, and other news.
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On May 3rd, we celebrated our Spring 2025 graduates at our departmental commencement ceremony. We proudly graduated sixteen Bachelor of Science students in Plant Biology, ten Master of Microbial Biotechnology students, one Master of Science in Microbiology student, and one PhD in Plant Biology student – a total of twenty-eight accomplished students! We're excited to see the amazing things our newest graduates will achieve and encourage you to stay connected!
After 7 years as the Department Head of the best department in the university, I have decided to step down from the Head position and return to the faculty. The Dean has assembled a search committee and there will soon be an formal announcement of the position for individuals to apply. I have agreed to stay on as Department Head until a successor is selected which we hope will be early in the fall semester. It has been an amazing experience leading this department and I am so grateful for the opportunity to work with this group of talented and dedicated individuals.
- Bob Franks, Department Head
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Undergraduate Awards and Recognition |
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| Outstanding Plant Biology Major
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The Outstanding Plant Biology Major Award is presented annually to a graduating student who has a sustained record of excellent academic performance, research experience, and departmental involvement.
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Award for Outstanding Academic Achievement in Plant Biology
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This award recognizes a graduating student who has demonstrated scholarly excellence in their Plant Biology major coursework and who has an outstanding overall academic record.
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The Whitford Award is an academic scholarship given annually to a rising second, third, or fourth year Plant Biology major in recognition of their exceptional academic performance.
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Scott and Mary Dell Chilton Undergraduate Research Award
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The W. Scott and Mary Dell Chilton Award is a research scholarship used to fund the undergraduate research of the recipient. Cate will work with Anna Stepanova on “Employing MAGE recombineering to generate a collection of plant synthetic promoter variants”.
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The mission of the undergraduate Botany Club at NC State is to promote interactions among NC State students who are interested in the fundamental science of plants as well as to promote scholarship in and an open discussion of all things botanical. The Plant Biology Undergraduate Program recognizes the enthusiasm, commitment, and hard work of this year’s Botany Club Officer Team:
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- President: Zoe Curtis
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Vice President: Giuliana Mendoza
- Secretary/Treasurer: Shriya Reddy
- Social Media Coordinator: Christel Schober-Colburn
- Ag-Life Counsel Representatives: Caitlyn Elliott & Ella Tucker
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The 2025-2026 Botany Club Officers are:
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- President: Giuliana Mendoza
- Vice President: Caitlyn Elliott
- Secretary/Treasurer: Shriya Reddy
- Social Media Coordinator: Christel Schober-Colburn
- Ag-Life Counsel Representative: Ellison Marshall
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Graduate Awards and Recognition |
PMB Graduate Student Research Poster Symposium |
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| The spring symposium featured over fifteen graduate posters!
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Plant Biology Best Poster Awards
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- First place: Asa Budnick
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Second place tie: Anna Yaschenko and Aurora Toennisson
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Microbiology Best Poster Awards
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- First Place tie: Dexter Boldog & Kairi Tanaka, and Samantha Kisthardt
- Second Place: Taylor Kennedy
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Special thanks to the faculty members who served as poster judges: Marcela Rojas-Pierce, Imara Perera, Alexander Krings, Will Petry, Anna Stepanova, Solomon Samuel, Sue Dagher, Bob Franks, & Zhe Lyu!
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| Martha Sue Sebastian Memorial Award for Excellence in Teaching
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The Sebastian Award given to TAs who have taught multiple sections of PB courses, who have excellent teaching evaluations, and who demonstrate evidence of professional development in teaching.
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Susan R. Vitello Award for Exemplary Service by Plant Biology Graduate Students
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Each year the Plant Biology Graduate Program Committee will present the Vitello Award to the Plant Biology graduate student who has gone above and beyond the call of duty in serving the needs of the department.
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Plant Biology Graduate Student Association |
We had another great group of PBGSA Officers this year!
Thank you to:
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- President: Katie Vollen
- VP: Alden Sears
- Treasurer: Erin Emott
- Social director: K Brinson
- Secretary: Erin Logan
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Our 2025-2026 PBGSA Officers will be:
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- President: K Brinson
- VP: Erin Logan
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Treasurer: Erin Emott
- Social director: Elizabeth Paillan
- Secretary: Lemor Carlton
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Campus is abloom this time of year!
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Microbiology Graduate Student Association |
We had another amazing group of MBGSA Officers this year.
A heartfelt thank you to:
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- President: Molly Vanhoy
- VP: Kairi Tanaka
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Treasurer/Secretary: Carla Sanchez
- GSA Representative: Rania Raftopoulou
- Faculty Meeting Representative: Olivia Mathieson
- Social & Outreach Coordinator: Emma Jager
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Our 2025-2026 MBGSA Officers will be:
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- President: Molly Vanhoy Walsh
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Vice President: Jenna Kraemer
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Treasurer: Carla Sanchez
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GSA Representative: Dexter Boldog
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Faculty Meeting Representative: Edeline Anthoniraj
- Social and Outreach Coordinator: Emma Gray
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The bees enjoy the new blossoms on campus.
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LW Parks Research Awards in Microbiology (Undergraduate): |
- Matthew Clayton Characterizing salinity tolerance of bacterial isolates from a natural saltwater gradient (Mentor: M. Choudoir)
- Sarah Harvey Investigating the mechanisms of cAMP secretion in Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mentor: M. Gazdik Stofer)
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Yvette Wittenborn Comparing Antimicrobial Resistance in Meat and Seafood from North Carolina State Farmers Market and Retail Stores (Mentor: S. Thakur)
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LW Parks Research Awards in Microbiology (Graduate): |
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Nicole Burroughs Quantifying microbial dispersal to decode microbial community assembly (Mentor: W. Petry)
- Lisa Metzger USF1 Regulates Expression of the Anti-Apoptotic Gene Dpp7 (Mentor: M. Sikes)
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Micaela Robson Investigating Heterotrophic Nitrification – Aerobic Denitrification in Acinetobacter calcoaceticus for Improving Microbially Induced Carbonate Precipitation Applications (Mentor: A. Grunden)
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Masters of Microbial Biotechnology |
All 10 Spring 2025 graduates from the MMB Program.
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Three teams of Master of Microbial Biotechnology (MMB) students from North Carolina State University showcased their innovative ideas at the CATALYZE Commercialization Conference. The team consisting of Faith Jezioranski-Davis, Vijay Manoharan, Amy Nguyen, Lea Osman and Hannah Ralls under the mentorship of Dr. Amanda Trinidad Hill secured third place, earning $2,000 in funding to further develop their innovative idea.
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Asa Budnick, Anna Yaschenko, Katie Vollen, Jennifer Tapia and Melina Schopler represented our department at the 2025 University Graduate Student Research Symposium. Melina received third place recognition in the Life Sciences category!
- Samantha Kisthardt received a travel award to attend the Mid-Atlantic Microbial Pathogenesis Conference.
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Anna Yaschenko served as our CALS Peer Mentor for the 2024-25 academic year. Katie Vollen will be the CALS Peer mentor for the upcoming academic year.
- K Brinson received the Phipps Conservatory Botany in Action Fellowship. She will be traveling to Belize for field work this summer!
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Kaleb Goff is the inaugural recipient of the GLORIA Great Basin Graduate Research Fellowship, which will provide two years of full support.
- Kaleb also published the first chapter of his dissertation in Ecosphere.
- Erin Emott received the Plant Biology Graduate Program Travel Award to help support her 40 planned research field trips this summer!
- Congrats to Rachel Hammer for being selected by the DOE Office of Science Graduate Student Research Program (SCGSR)! Rachel will visit Peter Weber at Lawrence Livermore National Lab, where she will learn how to use NanoSIMS to examine root-fungal interactions for 15N-labeled nitrogen.
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Hannah Davis received a Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship from the American Society of Plant Biologists that comes with an opportunity to travel to the ASPB meeting in Ottawa in 2026.
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College of Agriculture and Life Science Awards |
- Eric Martineau received the undergraduate CALS Change Maker Award.
- Zoe Curtis received the CALS Outstanding Scholar Award at the undergraduate
- Kaleb Goff received the CALS Outstanding Scholar Award at the graduate level.
- Hannah Davis received the undergraduate CALS Outstanding Student Researcher Award.
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Erin Emott won the Visual Artist Award in the 3D category at the NC State student art sale. This is the second year in row she has received this award!
Her award-winning piece, Groovy, is pictured here.
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Faculty Awards and Announcements |
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- Dr. Kasie Raymann was named a Goodnight Early Career Innovator.
- Dr. Terri Long received a Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, Mathematics and Engineering Mentoring.
- Dr. Ross Sozzani received the Outstanding Research Award and was inducted into the university’s Research Leadership Academy.
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Dr. Ross Sozzani was also selected for the 2025-26 class of Provost’s Faculty Fellows. The Provost’s Faculty Fellows Program supports talented faculty in the exploration of academic leadership roles at the university’s highest levels.
- Dr. Bill Hoffmann was named a finalist for the Jackson Rigney International Service Award.
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Lab Announcements and Publications |
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Katie Vollen received a full-ride travel award to attend an NSF SynBio workshop at the University of Florida.
- Hannah Davis recently received full-ride travel award from the North American Arabidopsis Steering Committee’s Mentored Networking Cohort (MNC) attend the International Conference on Arabidopsis Research (ICAR) in Ghent, Belgium.
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Anna Yaschenko received the Advances in Genome Biology and Technology (AGBT) Next Gen Leadership Award and will attend the Advances in Genome Biology and Technology General Conference.
- Anna also received the Genetics and Genomics Academy Dissertation Completion Grant Award!
- Publications:
- Vollen K., Alonso J.M., Stepanova A.N. (2025) Beyond a few bases: methods for large DNA insertion and gene targeting in plants. Plant J Mar;121(6):e70099, doi: 10.1111/tpj.70099
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Akieliah Robinson, graduated this May with a BSc in Biological and Agricultural Engineering. Akieliah was instrumental in building the lab's microbial isolate collection. She will be missed, but we are so excited that she will be traveling to Taiwan this summer for a leadership program!
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The Choudoir Lab received a Global One Health Academy Local Engagement Seed Grant Award for the project Engaging in Microbiome Stewardship through Heirloom Collard Cultivation.
- Isabella Borrero received the USDA NIFA National Needs Fellowship and Southern regional Education Board fellowship.
- Publications:
- Choudoir MJ, Ishaq SL, Beiko RG, Silva DS, Allen-Vercoe E, O’Doherty KC.0.The case for microbiome stewardship: what it is and how to get there. mSystems0:e00062-25.https://doi.org/10.1128/msystems.00062-25
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- Rachel Hammer was selected by the Department of Energy Office of Science Graduate Student Research Program! Rachel will visit Peter Weber at Lawrence Livermore National Lab, where she will learn how to use NanoSIMS to examine root-fungal interactions for 15N-labeled nitrogen. While she’s there, Rachel will also have the opportunity to interact in person with uBiospheres project collaborators!
- Harry Ervin received the International Farming Entrepreneurial Graduate Student Support Award for his video submission.
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Olivia Mathieson received the Mary Poston Award for Best Student Oral Presentation at ASM-NC.
- Molly Vanhoy Walsh received the Richard and Mary Finkelstein Student Travel Award to attend ASM 2024.
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- The Lyu Lab received a grant from the Animal Health and Nutrition Consortium studying the hydrogen metabolism in the rumen microbiome.
- Anna Miller and Kairi Tanaka received a Summer Research Teamwork Mini-Grant from the Genetics and Genomics Academy.
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Dexter Boldog and Kairi Tanaka received the Graduate Student Best Poster Award (1st place) at the12th Annual Southeastern Biogeochemistry Symposium.
- Abigail O'Brien (technician/lab manager) has been accepted into grad school!
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- The Xie lab received a $1,000 donation from Mr. Kevin Lau for anti-COVID research.
- Bethany Moster received a third place award for her oral presentation at Biogeochemistry Conference.
- Rebecca Cai won the second place in the poster presentation of undergraduate students in the 12th Annual Southeastern Biogeochemistry Symposium.
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Plant and Microbial Biology Spring 2025 Graduates |
Congratulations again to our Spring 2025 Graduates!
The PMB department commends you on your resilience and perseverance in completing your degrees. Good luck on all your future endeavors and be sure to fill out our Alumni Update Form to stay in touch and receive our bi-annual newsletter.
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| We've launched our own Instagram account (@ncsupmb)! Follow to learn what's happening in the department
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Stay connected with the department on our socials!
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100 Derieux Place Campus Box 7614 | Raleigh, NC 27607 US
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