Project Personnel

Kiersten Wise is an Associate Professor and Extension Specialist for Agronomic Field Crop Diseases at Purdue University, with primary responsibility for diseases of corn, soybean, and wheat. Her research and extension programs focus on developing economical and sustainable disease management practices for agronomic field crops, including corn, soybean and wheat. Research efforts examine the effects of management techniques on the biology of plant diseases, and aim to identify disease management practices that will improve crop production efficiency and simultaneously increase our awareness of how diseases interact with their hosts.

Tom Isakeit is a professor and extension plant pathologist, whose goal is to use his knowledge and experience in plant pathology to maximize the profitability and sustainability of Texas farmers.  His specialization is management of diseases of cotton, corn and sorghum.  His main focus in corn has been the management of aflatoxin, using multiple approaches.  This involves collaborative field and laboratory research with other scientists, as well as applied research conducted on commercial farms in collaboration with other extension personnel.  As part of his extension responsibility, current research results are presented to growers and other agribusiness personnel at meetings and field days throughout the state, and in the form of publications.  His M.Sc. and Ph.D. in plant pathology were obtained at Michigan State University and his B.Sc. in agriculture is from the University of Alberta.

Byung-Jun Yoon received his B.S.E. (summa cum laude) degree from Seoul National University (SNU), Seoul, Korea, in 1998, and the M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from California Institute of Technology (Caltech), Pasadena, CA, in 2002 and 2007, respectively, all in electrical engineering. He was a postdoctoral researcher at Caltech from Dec. 2006 to Oct. 2007. In 2008, he joined the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Texas A&M University, College Station, TX, where he is currently an assistant professor. His recent honors include the Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Award from the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the Best Paper Award at the 9th Asia Pacific Bioinformatics Conference (APBC), both in 2011. His main research interest is in signal processing, machine learning, bioinformatics, and computational biology.

Gary Payne's research is on maize diseases, with a focus on ear rots and mycotoxin contamination.  His research on fumonisins, produced by Fusarium verticillioides and aflatoxins, produced by Aspergillus flavus ranges from field studies on the ecology and epidemiology of the pathogens to genomic approaches aimed at understanding pathogenesis and the biosynthesis and regulation of these two toxins.  His current research is focused on identification of maize resistance genes through transcriptional profiling of the interaction between these two fungi and maize seeds. Gary also works closely with colleagues who perform research on breeding for resistance to fumonisin contamination and on biological control for aflatoxin contamination.

Ignazio Carbone is a population biologist interested in phylogeography, molecular systematics, ecology and evolution. His primary research focus is on applying population genetic methods to retrace the natural history of fungal populations and species, to identify the origin of invading pathogens and to elucidate the underlying population processes that impact fungal genome architecture, particularly as it relates to gene clustering, function and adaptation.  Dr. Carbone is actively developing software tools to facilitate evolutionary and population genetic analyses. He completed his B.S (1992), M.S (1994) and Ph.D (2000) at the University of Toronto. Dr. Carbone joined the Department of Plant Pathology at NC State University in 2002. For more information please visit his lab website.

Felicia Wu is the John A. Hannah Distinguished Professor of Food Science and Human Nutrition and Agricultural, Food, and Resource Economics at Michigan State University. Her research concerns the global health and economic risks of foodborne toxins, and the cost-effectiveness and feasibility of interventions to improve food safety in resource-poor settings. For her research on the impact of aflatoxin regulations on global liver cancer, Dr. Wu was awarded a National Institutes of Health EUREKA Award. She has been commissioned by the World Health Organization (WHO) to estimate the global burden of disease caused by foodborne aflatoxin and foodborne arsenic. Dr. Wu serves on the expert roster of the Joint FAO/WHO Expert Committee on Food Additives (JECFA) of the United Nations, and is one of three recipients of the 2011 Scientific Committee on Problems of the Environment (SCOPE)-Zhongyu award for global environmental research. She is an area editor for three journals: Risk Analysis, World Mycotoxin Journal, and Archives of Environmental and Occupational Health.  Dr. Wu earned her PhD in Engineering & Public Policy from Carnegie Mellon University, and her AB and SM in Applied Mathematics from Harvard University.

Chenxing (Esther) Niu is a Ph.D. student with Dr. Charles Woloshuk at Purdue University studying the molecular regulation of fumonisin biosynthesis. Specifically, Esther’s research is focused on the transporter-like gene FST1. Deletion of this gene in F. verticillioides has been shown to cause defects in secondary metabolism (fumonisin production), cell wall structure, conidiogenesis, virulence, and resistance to reactive oxygen species. Her objectives are to: compare the transcriptomes of the wild type and FST1 mutant strain (Δfst1) during colonization of corn kernels; determine the importance of amino acids in the central loop and c-terminus regions of FST1; and characterize FST1 function when expressed in yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae) system. Results from this research will provide new basic knowledge about the function of a gene critical for fumonisin production.  

Megan Sexton is a Ph.D. student co-majoring in Plant Pathology and Crop Science at North Carolina State University. Megan's research interests include mycotoxin pathology and fungal interactions at the molecular level. The goal of Megan's research is to develop new biocontrol mechanisms for mycotoxins (aflatoxin and fumonisin) in corn. Megan is also involved in extension projects to help inform farmers of better growing practices. 

Tyler Mays is a Master's Degree student Texas A&M University-Kingsville, studying Plant and Soil Science, with emphases in agronomy and Integrated Pest Management. Upon completion, he intends to pursue a Ph.D. in Crop Production/IPM. Tyler is originally from Sweeny, Texas. 

Alvaro Garcia is originally from Brownsville, Texas. He is currently studying Plant and Soil Science, with an emphasis on agronomy and integrated pest management, at Texas A&M University-Kingsville. He is considering a M.S. in Plant & Soil Science. After previously interning at the USDA Plant Stress Laboratory in Lubbock, Alvaro will be interning this summer at Purdue University and working with Dr. Kiersten Wise.

James "Trent" Monacell started graduate school at North Carolina State University in 2008, after receiving his B.S in Computer Science from Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology. He worked in the Carbone lab studying the genomics of filamentous fungi, in particular heterokaryosis and heterokaryon compatibility in Aspergillus section Flavi. He completed a Ph.D. in Bioinformatics in 2014, including a thesis entitled "Identification of heterokaryon incompatibility genes in Aspergillus using array comparative genome hybridization and whole genome sequencing". 

Megan H. Meyers pursued a Master's in Plant Pathology at North Carolina State University under the supervision of Drs. Carbone and Heiniger. Megan earned her B.S. at The University of Wisconsin - Madison in Plant Pathology in 2013. Her research interests include biological control development, outreach/extension programs, and sustainable agriculture. She was heavily involved in the extension program at NCSU with Dr. Ron Heiniger. Megan's overall career goal is to educate growers on the risks of phytotoxins/mycotoxins and the precautions they can take to reduce their risk. Megan is also interested in the biological control industry and developing programs that encourage children to be involved with agriculture and learn about plant diseases.

Rodrigo Olarte's contributions to this project came as a doctoral student in the department of Plant Pathology at NCSU. Rodrigo was born in the Philippines, but grew up near the San Francisco Bay Area. He received a B.A. in Molecular and Cell Biology with an emphasis in Cell and Developmental Biology at the University of California at Berkeley, and later completed a Masters in Plant Pathology at Cornell University in upstate New York. While at NCSU in hte lab of Dr. Ignazio Carbone, he studied the ramifications of sex in regard to toxin heritability in experimental crosses of the fungus Aspergillus flavus, with the long-term goal of finding more effective ways of controlling this fungus in nature. Rodrigo comleted his Ph.D. in 2014.

Mary Lewis is a native of Fayetteville, NC and obtained her B.S. in Plant Biology from NCSU in 2012.  As an undergraduate she worked in Dr. Ignazio Carbone's lab, receiving two Undergraduate Research Awards and participating in summer REU programs at the University of Nebraska and Cornell. In the summer of 2012, Mary was a Global Plant Health Intern at NCSU and had the opportunity to visit Costa Rica to study the population biology of black sigatoka on banana and plantain.  She completed her M.Sc. under Drs. Carbone and Peter S. Ojiambo in 2014, focusing on biocontrol of Aspergillus flavus.

Amanda Lewis completed a summer internship in 2013 with Dr. Greta Schuster at TAMUK. She has since graduated from TAMUK, with a BS in Agriculture Science, minoring in Math, Plant Science, and Agribusiness. The recipient of a Rotary Disctrict 5930 Global Grant Schaolarship, Amanda is now studying Plant Science at the University of Wageningen in the Netherlands. She then intends to pursue a career in sustainable agriculture. Amanda is originally from Ciudad Valles, San Luis Potosi, Mexico.

Gregorio Carmona is originally from La Feria, Texas, and is currently a student at Texas A&M University-Kingsville pursuing a degree in Plant and Soil Science with an Environmental Soils option. His goal is to be part of the NRCS, where he hopes to work together with farmers to develop best management practices aimed at preserving soil fertility. He enjoys fishing, the beach, and riding horses. During the summer of 2014, Gregorio interned at Purdue University and worked with Dr. Kiersten Wise. He has since resumed studies at TAMUK, and works at the TAMUK Citrus Center.

Kameron Koepp is from New Braunfels, Texas. During his junior year at Texas A&M University-Kingsville, while majoring in Agriculture Science, he interned with Dr. Ron Heiniger at the Vernon G. James Research and Extension Center in Plymouth, NC. Active in 4-H and FFA through high school, Kameron continued with both organizations in college. His interests include hunting, fishing and restoring antique tractors, including his current project – restoring a John Deere tractor that belonged to his great-grandfather. The youngest of three children, he is the fourth generation to farm his family’s homestead, which he has returned to since completing his degree.