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Major: Interdepartmental Genetics

Advisor: Nick Lauter, Marna Yandeau-Nelson

I am an Iowa native that started working on a PhD in the Interdepartmental Genetics and Genomics PhD program with a minor in Statistics during the summer of 2014. I received a Bachelor of Science degree in Biology from Buena Vista University in Storm Lake, Iowa. My research interests include quantitative genetics, plant breeding, metabolomics, plant stress response, and plant-insect interactions, and my organism of choice is maize.

Currently, I am a part of a multidisciplinary project focused on maize silk surface lipids. My current contributions towards the project include investigation of quantitative trait loci (QTL) associated with silk metabolite biosynthesis, characterization of surface lipid accumulation across genetically diverse maize germplasm, and analysis of the effect silk metabolite consumption has on corn ear worm growth.

Outside of research I enjoy traveling around the country and the world, gardening, and volunteering in my community.