Members

Associate Professor

Susana is originally from Lima, Peru. She graduated with a B.S. in Biological Sciences from Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia (Lima, Peru). She obtained her M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in plant breeding and genetics from North Carolina State University in 1998 and 2003, respectively. Her main research interest is to combine new technologies with conventional breeding methods for turfgrass improvement.

Susana is married and has two young daughters. Her hobbies include traveling (especially to her beloved Peru), cooking and enjoying her favorite microbrews.

Research Specialist

Carolina is a native of Ibagué, Colombia. She got a B.S. in Agronomy from Universidad del Tolima (Ibagué, Colombia) and an M.S. in Plant Pathology from the University of Georgia. She is the oldest member of the turfgrass breeding team, having joined the program in January of 2009.   Carolina manages the molecular laboratory and our pathology projects in the phytotron. Additionally, she is in charge of the bermuda and zoysiagrass crossing programs and our centipedegrass mutation breeding project.

Carolina enjoys spending time with her family, and anything outdoors, especially mountain biking.

919-515-0324

1130 Williams Hall

Graduate Research Assistant

Esdras is originally from Yorito-Yoro, Honduras. He got a B.S. in natural resources from the Universidad Nacional de Agricultura (Olancho, Honduras). Esdras started with the program in 2010 as an international scholar. He is currently working towards his M.S. degree. His research project focuses on the use of colchicine to manipulate ploidy levels in St. Augustinegrass. Additionally, Esdras is in charge of the St. Augustinegrass crossing program.

Esdras enjoys spending time with his two pet guinea pigs, Toña and Rosie. He loves food and his hobbies are Zumba, hiking and swimming.

919-515-0324

1203 Williams Hall

Post-doctoral Research Associate

Xingwang is originally from Linyi, China. He graduated with a B.S degree in Plant Science & Technology at Hunan Agricultural University (Changsha, China). He got his Ph.D. degree in Plant Genetics from Nanjing Agricultural University (Nanjing, China) in 2015. He moved to North Carolina and joined our program as postdoctoral research associate in 2016. His currently research focuses on the SNP marker development and QTL identification correlated with drought tolerance in St. Augustinegrass using bioinformatics tools such as GBS (Genotyping-by-Sequencing).

In his spare time, Xingwang enjoys spending time and cooking with his wife. He likes playing soccer and roots for a soccer team, Shandong Luneng, in his hometown.

919-515-0324

1209 Williams Hall

Graduate Research Assistant

McCamy is originally from Augusta, GA.  She got her B.S. in Crop, Soil, and Environmental Sciences from Auburn University.  McCamy began her M.S. degree at NCSU in the fall of 2014, and her research is focused on genetic and physiological components of freeze tolerance in zoysiagrass.  Her projects include: 1) the identification of QTLs correlated with winter hardiness in zoysiagrass using PCR based methods and DNA sequencing and 2) the use of cold acclimation and freezing chambers to analyze the accumulation of certain cellular components in a range of zoysia cultivars during the freezing process.

McCamy enjoys spending her spare time working on different youth development programs in Raleigh, and her hobbies include gardening, cooking, travel, and hiking.

919-515-0324

1209 Williams Hall

Graduate Research Assistant

Kelly is originally from Sudlersville, MD.  She received her B.S. degree in Agronomy with an emphasis in Plant Breeding and Biotechnology and minors in Genetics and International Agriculture from Iowa State University in 2015.  Shortly after graduation she arrived at North Carolina State University to begin her M.S. in Crop Science working on bioenergy crops breeding.  The focus of her research is on evaluating different accessions of Miscanthus, Saccharum and Arundo for their ability to uptake nutrients from swine lagoons.  Her projects include: 1) conducting a pilot study in the greenhouse with diverse accessions of Miscanthus, Saccharum, and Arundo to evaluate them for their ability to remove nutrients from a nutrient cocktail formulated based on the elements commonly found in swine effluent, 2) establish the best performing accessions in the field and take preliminary data on establishment and biomass.

Kelly enjoys spending time with her lab mix Daisy and her hobbies include traveling and reading.

919-515-0324

1203B Williams Hall

International Scholar

Susan is originally from Catacamas, Olancho, Honduras. She got a B.S. in agronomy from the Universidad Nacional de Agricultura (Olancho, Honduras). Susan is doing an internship with us in order to learn new research methodologies and improve her English communication skills. She’s currently working on screening zoysiagrass germplasm for large patch resistance. Additionally, she provides support with field and greenhouse experiments.

Susan enjoys taking walks with her dog, Dr. Seuss, and her hobbies include cooking, watching movies and dancing.

919-515-0324

1203B Williams Hall

PhD Candidate

Jeff completed his PhD on the application conventional and molecular tools to bermudagrass breeding in the summer of 2016. He then went on to work as a post-doctoral researcher in Dr. Jim Holland’s Maize Breeding and Genetics program.

Jenny completed a MS degree with our program in 2011 working on the use of molecular markers for assessing genetic diversity in Zoysiagrass. She then stayed on for her PhD and worked on combining conventional and molecular breeding methods for improving freezing tolerance in St. Augustinegrass. After graduation in the fall of 2015, Jenny started a post-doc in Dr. Peter Ballint-Kurti’s lab looking at genetics of disease resistance in sorghum.

Steve was a graduate research assistant with the program from 2010 to 2013.  His M.S. research was on developing SSR markers for St. Augustinegrass using large-scale sequencing technology and using those markers to map QTL associated with resistance to gray leaf spot. After graduation, Steve started a Ph.D. program with the NCSU small grains breeding program.

Casey was a research specialist for the program from 2010 until 2013. His responsibilities included managing all field and greenhouse trials and providing support with our pathology projects in the phytotron. Casey graduated his Ph.D. in turfgrass management in 2013 and accepted a position with Texas A&M as an Assistant Professor and State Extension Turfgrass Specialist.

Bessy was an international research intern from Honduras from 2009 to 2010. She focused on improving artificial hybridization methods in St. Augustinegrass and provided support with field and greenhouse experiments. After her time with us, Bessy returned to Honduras where she currently works for Monsanto.

Tito was a member of the program from 2009 until 2011. His M.S. research focused on developing methods for evaluation of cold tolerance in St. Augustinegrass. Additionally, Tito did histological work to investigate how tissues within the node respond to freezing stress.  After graduation, Tito returned to his native Bolivia where he currently works as a fava bean breeder for the Pairumani Research Institute.