Adjunct Associate Professor,  Cereal Disease Laboratory, USDA-ARS

Biology and Population Genetics of Cereal Rust Fungi

My main research interests are in biology and population genetics of cereal rust fungi and host resistance to rusts in wheat and barley. I conduct nationwide surveys and monitoring of the race composition of the stem rust pathogen Puccinia graminis and investigate forces causing race dynamics in the stem rust populations. I conduct research in wheat and barley improvement by evaluating critical breeding germplasm, identifying new sources of resistance, and investigating the genetics of resistance. I also investigate the diversity of Fusarium head blight resistance in spring wheat.