As a Research Assistant and Field Technician in Lina Quesada’s Vegetable Pathology lab at NC State, Hunter Collins finds great value in helping to find methods to better manage diseases in vegetable crops.
CucCAP Scientists
The CucCAP team is a diverse group of scientists including plant breeders, plant genomics specialists, plant pathologists, crop production specialists, and agricultural economics specialists. Early career scientists on the CucCAP team include both MS and PhD graduate students, Post doctoral researchers, research technicians, and other technical staff assisting the CucCAP project’s principal investigators.
Early Career Scientist Spotlight | Kelly Avila
Kelly Avila is a Post Doctoral Researcher and works with CucCAP Plant Pathologist Dr. Lina Quesada in the Vegetable Pathology Lab at NC State University. She chose to work in the Quasada lab because of the focus on Extension, integrated disease management, and genomics.
Early Career Scientist Spotlight | Gregory Inzinna
Gregory Inzinna hopes to identify resistance genes in Cucurbita and provide the seed and vegetable industry with resistant breeding lines and markers they can use in their work.
Early Career Scientist Spotlight | Xuebo Zhao
Xuebo Zhao is a postdoctoral researcher in the Fei Lab at Boyce Thompson Institute. The focus of Xuebo’s work is genomics. Her research is to unravel the evolution of Cucurbits using pan-genome.
Early Career Scientist Spotlight | Bazgha Zia
Bazgha Zia is a postdoctoral researcher at the United States Vegetable Laboratory in Charleston, S.C. Bazgha’s research includes the development of virus resistant genetic material in cucurbits and identification of novel virus strains.
Early Career Scientist Spotlight | Anju Biswas
Anju Biswas is a Post Doctoral fellow in the USDA-ARS-ORISE program at the U. S. Vegetable Laboratory at Charleston, SC. Her mentor is CucCAP Watermelon Team leader, Dr. Amnon Levi. The focus of her work is plant breeding, plant pathology, and genomics.
Early Career Scientist Spotlight | Prerna Sabharwal
Prerna Sabharwal is a graduate student working on her PhD in the Department of Horticultural Sciences at the University of Florida. Her major Professor is CucCAP Squash breeder, Dr. Geoffrey Meru. The focus of Prerna’s research includes plant breeding, plant pathology, and genomics.
Early Career Scientist Spotlight | Yara Rosado Rivera
Yara performs field, greenhouse and lab research experiments in order to evaluate different disease management strategies for Cucurbit crops. One of the most important aspects of her position is to make research results available to growers.