{"id":14,"date":"2022-05-03T11:08:34","date_gmt":"2022-05-03T15:08:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/site.caes.uga.edu\/jespersenlab\/?page_id=14"},"modified":"2026-08-03T14:37:10","modified_gmt":"2026-08-03T18:37:10","slug":"people","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/site.caes.uga.edu\/jespersenlab\/people\/","title":{"rendered":"People"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Current Members<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Dr. David Jespersen<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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Dr. David Jespersen is an associate professor in the University of Georgia\u2019s Department of Crop and Soil Sciences. He received in Ph.D. from Rutgers University in New Jersey, where he focused on turfgrass physiology under advisement of Dr. Bingru Huang. He started as a faculty member on the UGA Griffin Campus in 2016, focusing on Turfgrass physiology. His research interests include understanding how turfgrasses respond to abiotic stresses and the underlying molecular mechanisms responsible for stress tolerance.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Rida Batool<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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Rida Batool completed her bachelor\u2019s degree in plant sciences from Quaid-i-Azam University, Pakistan, in 2026 and is currently pursuing a Master of Science at the University of Georgia. Her research interests include plant physiology, plant\u2013water relations, drought stress, and precision irrigation. Her research focuses on understanding soil water potential thresholds that influence water uptake in bermudagrass under drought conditions. By integrating weighing lysimeters with soil water potential and moisture sensors, she examines how soil water availability affects plant water use, compares responses between the drought-tolerant cultivar TifTuf and the widely used Tifway 419, and evaluates how these relationships change as root systems develop over time. The goal of this research is to improve irrigation decision-making and support more efficient and sustainable water management in turfgrass systems.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Manveer Singh<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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Manveer Singh is a Ph.D. student in the Turfgrass Physiology Lab at the University of Georgia, Griffin campus. He earned his bachelor’s degree from Punjab Agricultural University, India, in 2021, and completed his Master\u2019s in Horticulture at Oklahoma State University, USA in 2024. His current research focuses on UAV-Based Remote Sensing Applications for Precision Irrigation and Early Drought Stress Detection in Turfgrass Management. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Kumar Vaibhav<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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Kumar Vaibhav is a graduate student (Master’s) at the University of Georgia working in precision agriculture and turfgrass management. His current research focuses on site-specific irrigation management in Bermudagrass using UAV-acquired imagery. He integrates sensor data with soil moisture measurements and plant physiological responses to identify optimal vegetation indices for estimating plant water status. Kumar holds a Bachelor of Science in Agriculture from Banaras Hindu University (BHU), India.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Previous Members<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Ravi Teja Seelam<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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Ravi Teja Seelam completed his Ph.D. in Crop and Soil Sciences at the University of Georgia in 2026. During his doctoral studies, his research focused on elucidating the physiological and molecular mechanisms underlying drought tolerance in warm-season turfgrasses. He used physiological assessments, transcriptomics and metabolomics approaches to identify drought-responsive pathways and candidate genes associated with stress resilience. Ravi earned his B.Sc. (Hons.) in Agriculture from Acharya N. G. Ranga Agricultural University, Rajahmundry Campus, in 2020 and his M.Sc. in Genetics and Plant Breeding from ANGRAU, Bapatla Campus, in 2022. His master\u2019s research focused on the molecular characterization of rice genotypes for thermotolerance. Driven by a longstanding interest in abiotic stress tolerance and crop improvement, Ravi joined the University of Georgia Tifton Campus as a postdoctoral researcher after earning his PhD. His broader research interests include plant stress physiology, molecular breeding, multi-omics, and the development of stress-tolerant crop varieties.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Saptarshi Mondal<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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Sarptarshi Mondal\u2019s early interest in biological sciences was inspired by his father, a botany teacher. He earned his B.S. (Hons.) in Agriculture from Visva-Bharati University, West Bengal, India and subsequently completed his M.S. in Plant Breeding and Genetics at Punjab Agricultural University with an ICAR postgraduate scholarship. After graduation, he worked as a Senior Research Fellow at Punjab Agricultural University and Bidhan Chandra Krishi Viswavidyalaya in India. Sarptarshi completed his Ph.D. in May 2026. His doctoral research focused on the molecular, genetic and physiological mechanisms underlying salt tolerance in turfgrasses and crop species. Following his Ph.D., he joined Dr. David Lowry\u2019s laboratory at Michigan State University as a postdoctoral researcher, where he continues to investigate plant adaptation and stress tolerance.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Jessica Abi Saab<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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Jessica Abi Saab completed her dual master\u2019s degree in Sustainable Agriculture and Crop and Soil Sciences in December 2025 through a collaborative program between the University of Padova in Italy and the University of Georgia in the United States. She completed the first year of the program in Italy, where she studied sustainable agricultural systems, before transitioning to the University of Georgia to conduct research in plant physiology. Her master\u2019s research investigated strategies to improve flooding tolerance in bermudagrass (Cynodon<\/em> spp.). She employed a two-pronged approach that involved modulating ethylene-signaling pathways and evaluating hybrid cultivars for inherent tolerance to waterlogged conditions. Originally from the mountainous regions of Lebanon, Jessica developed an early interest in agriculture through her family\u2019s strong connection to farming. She earned her bachelor\u2019s degree in Life and Earth Sciences from the Lebanese University, where she developed a growing interest in plant environment interactions and stress physiology.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Zhaksat Baikarayev<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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Zhaksat Baikarayev is currently pursuing his BSc degree in Biotechnology at L.N. Gumilyev Eurasian National University in Kazakhstan. His research interests include plant viral diseases, abiotic stress responses, and miRNAs . In Kazakhstan, his work focused on understanding how plants respond to viral infections and environmental stress by synthesizing antioxidant enzymes and stress-related proteins. Zhaksat completed a research internship in the Jespersen Lab at the University of Georgia, where he investigated how salt stress influences the expression levels of RNA and microRNAs in plants.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Somer Rowe<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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Somer Rowe was a turfgrass research professional with Dr. Jespersen\u2019s lab in the Crop and Soil Sciences department at the University of Georgia Griffin Campus. After working at the University of Georgia Griffin Campus, she moved to USDA to continue her career. Her lifelong interest in botany led to her earning a bachelor’s in Plant Biology and a master’s in Plant Protection and Pest Management from the University of Georgia. At UGA, she managed the greenhouse, maintained the field experiment plots, and aided in data collection for the lab.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Qianqian Fan <\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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Qianqian (Amy) Fan<\/a> completed her Ph.D. at the University of Georgia\u2019s Department of Crop and Soil Sciences. Originally from China, Qianqian obtained her bachelor\u2019s degree in Grassland Science from China Agricultural University in 2016, followed by a Master\u2019s degree in Crop Science at Oregon State University in 2019. Her research was to understand heat stress mechanisms in creeping bentgrass using approaches from both physiology and molecular biology, with a focus on protein metabolism. She graduated in December 2024 from University of Georgia and Currently working as post-doctoral fellow at University of Illinois – Urbana-Champaign<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Ravneet Kaur<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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Ravneet started her M.S. program in UGA griffin campus in 2020 Spring. She got her bachelor\u2019s degree in Plant Breeding and Genetics from Punjab Agricultural University, India in 2019. Her research works comprised of studying drought performance in zoysiagrass species including some established cultivars like Empire, Meyer, Palisades, and experimental breeding lines from Tifton. She analyzed morpho-physiological differences in grass species to establish a correlation in their drought performance during extended dry down periods. Ravneet defended in 2022. She now works as a research associate at Living Carbon.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Krishna Katwal<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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Krishna started his PhD program at the University of Georgia Griffin Campus in 2017 summer. He is from Nepal. His BS is from TamilNadu Agriculture University, India, and MS from the Eastern New Mexico University, USA. Krishna’s research interests are turfgrass physiology, stress tolerance mechanisms, management practices and molecular biology. He graduated with a PhD degree in December 2021 from the University of Georgia and currently works as post-doctoral researcher at the Rutgers University.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Bo Xiao <\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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Bo Xiao studied in the University of Georgia as a visiting scholar for six months in 2018. He is now working in College of Horticulture and Gardening, Yangtze University, Hubei province, China, with research focusing on effects of soil microbes on turfgrass.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Current Members Dr. David Jespersen Dr. David Jespersen is an associate professor in the University of Georgia\u2019s Department of Crop and Soil Sciences. He received in Ph.D. from Rutgers University in New Jersey, where he focused on turfgrass physiology under advisement of Dr. Bingru Huang. He started as a faculty member on the UGA Griffin […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":785,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"caes_section_patterns":[],"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-14","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/site.caes.uga.edu\/jespersenlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/14","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/site.caes.uga.edu\/jespersenlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/site.caes.uga.edu\/jespersenlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/site.caes.uga.edu\/jespersenlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/785"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/site.caes.uga.edu\/jespersenlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/site.caes.uga.edu\/jespersenlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/14\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":396,"href":"https:\/\/site.caes.uga.edu\/jespersenlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/14\/revisions\/396"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/site.caes.uga.edu\/jespersenlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}