Well Done; PSS Student Research Symposium Winners Announced

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Texas Tech’s Department of Plant & Soil Science launched its 2025 Student Research Symposium this month, featuring almost 40 oral presentations and posters from both undergraduate and graduate research scholars. The academic unit’s annual program was held Friday (Apr. 25) in Texas Tech Library.

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The symposium's mission is to provide a platform for students at different stages of their programs to present their work and receive valuable feedback from peers and experts. In addition to showcasing student research, the students use the symposium as a training ground for students to develop essential soft skills such as leadership, project management, problem-solving, teamwork and collaboration.

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Among the outstanding efforts were:

Poster Finalists

1st Place: Matthew 'Cole' Woolard (PhD | Crop Protection) Does AxantTM Flex Cotton Response Differ When Various Adjuvants Are Tank-Mixed with Topramezone + L-glufosinate?
2nd Place: Monjurul Huda (PhD | PGBB) Seed Coat-Mediated Dormancy in Upland Cotton (Gossypium hirsutum)
3rd Place: (Tie) Taylor Smith (MS | Soil Science) How does Urban Residential Landscape Diversity Impact Soil Microbial Functional Diversity? and Mohit Jain (PhD | PGBB) A Morpho-Physiological Evaluation of a RIL Population of Upland Cotton at Seedling Stage

Oral Presentation Finalists

1st Place: Mahjabin Ferdaous Mim (PhD | Soil Science) Greenhouse Gas Emission from A Cotton–Sorghum Rotation System
2nd Place: Megan Singletary (PhD | Crop Protection) A Multi-Tactic Approach to Controlling Dicamba-Resistant Palmer Amaranth in Texas
3rd Place: (Ties) Avinash Shrestha (PhD | PGBB) FIGS for Cotton; Reshma Panackal Shibu (PhD | Fiber & Polymer) Next-Gen Nylon: Powered by Chitin; and Amir Shahin Shamsabadi (PhD | Fiber & Polymer) Effect of High-Pressure CO2 Combined with Chemical Pretreatment on the Dissolution of Cotton Linter Cellulose

Undergraduate Poster Finalists

1st Place: Jill Forrest (BS | Crop Protection) Outreach to Promote Entomology Learning Experiences in Texas’ High schools
2nd Place: Koby Nichols (BS | Fiber & Polymer) Carbon Capture in Your Backyard: Turfgrass Biochar

Other Department of Plant & Soil Science students presenting at the symposium in alphabetical order were:

Poster Presentations

Khusboo Agrawal (MS | Fiber & Polymer) Assessing the Chemical Compositional Variability of Sorghum Varieties in Semi-Arid Regions
Faith Alonge (MS | Soil Science) Assessing the Efficiency of Wastewater-Derived Struvite in Enhancing Soil Phosphorus Dynamics Compared to Crystal Green and Monoammonium Phosphate (MAP) Using Soil Incubation Assays
Guanyun Cheng (PhD | PGBB) Network Analysis of Sorghum Grain Development to Clarify the Biosynthesis of Starch, Protein and Oil
Houra Farkondehnia (PhD | Fiber & Polymer) Preparation of Highly Absorbent Porous Beads by Dissolving MCC in NMMO
Lee Fischel (MS | Soil Science) Short Term Impacts of No-Tillage, Cover Crops, And Sorghum Cotton Rotation on Soil-Water Dynamics
Micayla Lamb (PhD | PGBB) A genome-wide Association Study to Identify QTLs for Root System Architecture Traits in Upland Cotton.
Derseh Yilie Limineh (PhD | Fiber & Polymer) Optimization of (XOS) Extraction from South High-Plains Agricultural Feedstock Through Microwave-Assisted Pretreatment
Anjana Sabu (PhD | Fiber & Polymer) Extraction and Characterization of Xylooligosaccharides from Sorghum Stover for Dairy Calf Feed Application
Andrea Caprini Sagirato (MS | Crop Protection) Evaluation of Topramezone with Various PSII Inhibitors
Manpreet Singh (PhD| Soil Science) Evaluating Interactions Between Ground-Nesting Bees and Soil Physical Health Indicators in a Semi-Arid CRP Land
Megan Singletary (PhD | Crop Protection) Sustainable Weed Control Combinations in a Reduced Tillage Organic Cotton System
Kaitlyn Stubbs (MS | Horticulture & Turfgrass Science) Growth and Nutrient Dynamics in Salanova lettuce: Evaluating Biofortification Potential in Field and Deep-Water Systems
Anagha Sunil (MS| Fiber & Polymer) From Waste to Worth: The Untapped Power of Spent Mushroom Substrate
Katerina Vargas (PhD | Horticulture & Turfgrass Science) Vitamin C Biofortification in Lettuce for Improved Nutrition
Nicholas Wilson (MS |Soil Science) Native Legume Symbiosis in Semi-Arid Ecosystems

Oral Presentations

Raavi Arora (PhD | Soil Science) Soil Microbial Community Alteration and Reduced Nitrous Oxide Emissions with Legume Inclusion in Semi-Arid Pastures
Mayank Bangar (PhD | Crop Science) Deciphering the Principles Regulating Stem Mechanical Design to Explore the Genetic Control of Lodging Tolerance in Sorghum
Alondra Cruz (PhD | Crop Science) A Comparison of Summer Annual Forages Grown Under Differing Irrigation and Nitrogen Treatments
Houra Farkondehnia (PhD | Fiber & Polymer) Preparation of Highly Absorbent Porous Beads by dissolving MCC in NMMO
Md Mehedi Hasan (PhD | Crop Science) Seasonal Variation of Native Bee Communities in a Conventional Cotton Field in the Texas High Plains
Yusa Ichinose (PhD | Crop Science) Genomic Regions and Haplotypes Controlling Pre-Harvest Sprouting in Grain Sorghum
Zhiyuan Liu (PhD |Crop Science) Characterization of hs1 as a Key Regulator of Heat Tolerance in Sorghum
Pallavi (PhD | PGBB) Genotype- and Explant-Independent Sorghum Transformation and Understanding the Regeneration Mechanism.
Faisal Rahman (MS | Fiber & Polymer) Repurposing Cottonseed Protein Isolate for the Development of Enhanced Guar Gum-Based Cryogels
Teja Saddapalli (PhD | Crop Science) Assessing the Impact of Treated Produced Water on Soil Health and Forage Quality on Field Grown Alfalfa
Diego Arcelay Sánchez (MS | Soil Science) Impacts of Agricultural Land Uses on Playa Lake Soil Properties
Gaganjot Singh Sodhi (MS Crop Science) Growth and Reproduction of Palmer Amaranth (Amaranthus palmeri) Under Different Water Stress Conditions
Muskan Tiwari (MS | PGBB) Transcriptomic Analysis of Arachis Hypogaea to Identify Genes Conferring Resistance To Meloidogyne Arenaria
Emily Weiber (PhD | Soil Science) Using UAV Remote Sensing to Assess Cotton Cultivars for Water Stress Resistance in West Texas
Matthew 'Cole' Woolard (PhD | Crop Protection Evaluating different herbicide programs in AxantTM Flex Cotton.

This year students took on responsibilities for the symposium, such as formally inviting faculty and staff to serve as judges, managing the venue before and after the event, planning food and beverages, promoting the event, and handling registration, said Rosalyn Shim, symposium coordinator and Associate Professor of Plant Breeding & Genetics within the Department of Plant & Soil Science.

“Our goal was to transform the symposium into an event for students by students, with faculty mentors providing support,” she said. “We believe this approach will not only enhance the students' academic experience but also prepare them for their future careers by equipping them with practical skills.”

The seven Department of Plant & Soil Science students serving as the core organizers for this year’s event were:

Md Mehedi Hasan, a doctoral student from Bangladesh
Ivette Morales, a master’s student from Houston, Texas
Jeff Opena, a doctoral student from the Philippines
Manpreet Singh, a doctoral student from India
Christian Stephens, a doctoral student from Karnack, Texas
Jake Todd, a senior with an environmental soil and water science concentration from Ft. Worth, Texas
Chakri Voruganti, a doctoral student from India