{"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":"2025-10-08T15:45:41","modified_gmt":"2025-10-08T19:45:41","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

Jessica Abi Saab<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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Jessica Abi Saab<\/strong> is a master’s student enrolled in a dual degree program in Sustainable Agriculture<\/em> and Crop and Soil Sciences<\/em>, a collaborative initiative between the University of Padova in Italy and the University of Georgia in the United States. She completed the first year of her program in Italy, where she focused on sustainable agricultural systems, before transitioning to the University of Georgia to pursue her research in plant physiology. Her current research investigates strategies to improve flooding tolerance in Bermudagrass (Cynodon<\/em> spp.) by employing a two-pronged approach: modulating ethylene signaling pathways and evaluating hybrid cultivars for inherent tolerance to waterlogged conditions. Through this work, she aims to support the development of resilient turfgrass systems capable of withstanding increasingly variable environmental stresses. Originally from the mountainous regions of Lebanon, Jessica\u2019s passion for agriculture was cultivated early on through her family\u2019s deep connection to farming. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Life and Earth Sciences from the Lebanese University, where her academic journey laid the groundwork for her growing interest in plant-environment interactions and stress physiology.<\/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

Ravi Teja Seelam<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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RaviTeja Seelam is a graduate research student in the turf grass physiology lab of Dr. David Jespersen at the University of Georgia, Griffin campus. He started his Ph.D. program in crop and soil science in the fall of 2022. He completed his B.Sc. (Hons) Agriculture in 2020 (ANGRAU, Rajahmundry Campus) and graduated with a Master\u2019s in Genetics and Plant Breeding in 2022 (ANGRAU- Bapatla Campus) India. In his Master\u2019s he worked on Molecular Characterization of Genotypes for Thermotolerance in Rice. With his continuous curiosity towards the abiotic stresses in crop species, His doctoral program aims at elucidating drought stress genetic mechanisms, crop improvement strategies along with other molecular pathways in turf grass drought tolerance.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Saptarshi Mondal<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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Sarptarshi Mondal’s preliminary steps toward the world of biological sciences were paved by his father, who is a teacher in botany. He graduated with a BS in Agriculture (Hons.) from Visva Bharati, West Bengal, India. Then he moved to Punjab Agricultural University, India to pursue his MS in Plant Breeding and Genetics with ICAR-PG scholarship. After graduation, for a short period of time, he was appointed as Senior Research Fellow at PAU and BCKV, India. Presently, his doctoral research aims to explore the molecular genetics and physiological aspects of salt tolerance in different turfgrasses and crop species.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Previous Members<\/h2>\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> is a Ph.D. student in 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":{"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":339,"href":"https:\/\/site.caes.uga.edu\/jespersenlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/14\/revisions\/339"}],"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}]}}