Graduate Training Wheat Breeding and Genetics Program Soil and Crop Sciences Department Colorado State University Fort Collins, CO 80523

Graduate students are actively engaged in research projects within the Wheat Breeding and Genetics Program. These research projects usually involve some type of study that addresses an issue of direct interest to wheat producers in Colorado and thus the overall breeding effort. In addition to their research projects, graduate students also obtain significant field experience working with the breeding program throughout the summer.

Current students and research projects include the following:

Victoria (Tori) Valdez (vici.valdez@gmail.com) - Tori is working on a M.S. research project focusing on Russian wheat aphid (RWA) resistance. Tori is working to map molecular markers linked to RWA resistance in an Iranian wheat germplasm accession. Tori is also working in collaboraton with Dr. Nora Lapitan to pursue a candidate gene approach to understand the expression of RWA resistance.

Joshua Butler (mtclimbr@lamar.colostate.edu) - Josh is working on a Ph.D. dissertation research project aimed at development and validation of whole grain near infrared reflectance (NIR) calibrations for wheat quality assessment. Josh is also a Research Associate in the wheat breeding program. Josh is from Wisconsin.

Jennifer Roth (jsroth@lamar.colostate.edu) - Jennifer is working on a M.S. research project focusing on validation of the effects of marker assisted introgression of chromosomal segments controlling barley yellow dwarf virus resistance and high grain protein content. Jennifer is from Wisconsin.

Ben Beyer (M.S.) - 2007
Sally Clayshulte (Ph.D.) - 2005
Meghan Collins (M.S.) - 2004
Federico Pardina Malbrán (M.S.) - 2004
Teshome Mulat (Ph.D.) - 2004
Erin Ball (M.S.) - 2002