NC State

Why hello there! Sorry for not posting lately - I've been busy with preparing for graduate student recruitment weekend at NC State! I had a wonderful time - I'll tell yall about it!!

I left for NC on Wednesday right after a physics class - literally right after class. I ran out of lecture and to the bus which left practically the second after I got on. Thankfully the bus got to the terminal early (and that I checked in online) because there were so many people! When I landed in Raleigh, a graduate student was there to drive me to the hotel. I had to wake up at 7a their time to have breakfast with everyone. It was so busy - we were scheduled from 7a to 9p both days!

Can't help myself from taking Nature pictures!

Sedona, AZ

On Thursday, I got a tour of NC State and the surrounding area, shown places to live, dinner with graduate students and some faculty, tour of Bayer CropScience, whirlwind tour of other companies that collaborated with NC State, then dinner with the Dean and other graduate committee members.

PlantPath Girl and her brother - Grand Canyon National Park

Friday, I had 4 interviews with researchers who had similar interests to mine. Then we had 2 group interviews where all 12 of the recruits mingled with 10 or so researchers. I was so tired at the end of the day! Then we had dinner at a graduate student's house. I went to bed at 10:30 because I had to wake up at 5:30a to get to the airport for my flight home. Of course, I couldn't sleep on the plane but hey! It was a successful weekend to say the least :)

Just a pine cone chilling in some ash

My main research interests are sustainability in the farm field. How can we control plant diseases be controlled without chemicals? Are biocontrols an option? Host resistance (genetic/plant breeding)? Grafting (root stock that is resistant to a soilborne pathogen with a top that has delicious tomatoes on top)? What else can we do to grow crops sustainably? Finally - I'm extremely interested in Extension work and getting the information out to the public and doing small workshops. Hopefully Dr. Frank Louws gets back to me soon and I can get in his lab :) :) 

Nature <3