Research Interns Prep for Graduate School

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The 2013 Adair Program interns are, from left, Kari Weis of Highland, Ill; Brynn Alford of Rogers; Collin Salazar of Hot Springs; and Ioannis Neios of Thessaloniki, Greece.

Brynn Alford of Rogers; Collin Salazar of Hot Springs; Kari Weis of Highland, Ill.; and Ioannis Neios of Thessaloniki, Greece, are conducting graduate-level research through a summer internship program in Dale Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences at the University of Arkansas.

The four undergraduate students' projects contribute to ongoing agricultural research conducted by the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture, just as they would if they were enrolled in agricultural graduate programs at the university.

Offered by the department of plant pathology, the Adair program gives upper level undergraduate students the opportunity to conduct real research that contributes to agricultural science in Arkansas, said Burt Bluhm, program coordinator.

Each Adair participant takes on an independent research project, Bluhm said. They have a faculty advisor, but the students design and carry out their experiments.

Because plant pathology doesn't have an undergraduate program, Bluhm said, Adair helps draw students from other fields by introducing them to the discipline. It also encourages undergraduates to pursue an advanced degree by exposing them to graduate-level research.

Alford is majoring in biology and Spanish at Ouachita Baptist University at Arkadelphia. During her Adair internship, she is working with Ken Korth to study the release of chemicals by plants to deter insect pests. She is trying to determine if the plants release the chemicals from leaves and roots in response to insect activity on the plant, or by some other trigger.

Salazar is majoring in horticulture in Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences at the University of Arkansas. He's working with Jim Correll on two projects related to disease resistance in plants. He is studying whether tomato plants that are normally susceptible to disease from the pathogen Fusarium oxysporum lycopersicii become resistant when the plants are grafted onto rootstock from resistant plants. In a related project, he is testing celery varieties to find plants with resistance to the pathogen Colletotrichum acutatun.

Weis is majoring in plant science and agricultural journalism at the University of Missouri. For her Adair internship she is working with John Rupe on a project to how temperature and seed quality affect the growth and spread of diseases in soybean seedlings.

Neios is majoring in agriculture at Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. This summer he's working with Yannis Tzanetakis on a genetic search for new or unknown diseases in strawberries.

Bluhm said plant pathology graduates find jobs in multinational industries, educational institutions and other related jobs.