2015 Student Guest Speaker for the Departmental Seminar Series - 4/15/2015

4/15/2015 - The PPCP graduate students were pleased to host Dr. Jan E. Leach as their invited seminar speaker, 15 April 15!  Dr. Leach is the Associate Dean for Research in the College of Agriculture, University Distinguished Professor at Colorado State University and an Adjunct Scientist at the International Rice Research Institute (Philippines). She is an authority on the molecular biology of plant– pathogen interactions.  Her research focuses on understanding the molecular basis of durable disease resistance, particularly in rice-pathogen interactions. She gave a seminar entitled, “Understanding durable resistance in rice” where she discussed using QTLs to identify important genes and promoters for durable resistance to plant pathogens. Dr. Leach also shared her personal and professional experiences, provided important pointers on how to market oneself plus find jobs and funding opportunities.  Her main advice to the students was to be flexible and broad in your future vision and research topics.