Congratulations to Ph.D. candidate Yi-Ju Chen on the successful completion of her degree! Dr. Chen successfully defended her Ph.D. dissertation on Thursday, May 19. She will be leaving the lab this week and continuing her work as an assistant research fellow at the Taiwan Agricultural Research Institute (TARI). This is not a new position for Yi-Ju–she has worked as a researcher in the TARI Small Insect Pest Laboratory since 2011. The institute granted her a sabbatical and the funding to complete her Ph.D., the highest-ranking degree for a researcher, at UGA.
Yi-Ju’s dissertation research focused on the tobacco thrips, Frankliniella fusca, and tomato spotted wilt virus (TSWV) in Georgia’s peanut crops. The tritrophic pathosystem of F. fusca, TSWV, and peanut crops is complex, and Yi-Ju’s research helped to tease out their interactions and improve management strategies. She also tested peanut germplasm for resistance to thrips and TSWV. Future researchers can build on Yi-Ju’s work to breed thrips- and TSWV-resistant peanut cultivars.
Yi-Ju credits the support of her family and her employer, TARI, as well as her colleagues in the Srinivasan Lab for her success throughout her time here. She’s happy to be rejoining her husband and son in Taiwan when she flies back home this Wednesday.
Yi-Ju has been a ray of sunshine in the lab. Not only is she a hard worker (often working late nights and faithfully maintaining hundreds of plants and several thrips colonies), but she’s always ready to travel to a new place, try something new, or just hang out and have a good laugh. We will miss her! Congrats, Yi-Ju!
