Abby receives 2025 Frank L. Howard Undergraduate Fellowship from the American Phytopathological Society

Abby’s work is now supported by the American Phytopathological Society

Abby was awarded financial support of $1500 for her proposed research “Discovering Downy Mildew Resistance in Untamed Vitis of the Blue Ridge Mountains”. She will be propagating our Wild Vitis germplasm for screening against downy mildew isolates that are being collected currently in National Forests across Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia. She plans to work alongside the lab’s graduate student, Anugya Bhattarai.

Abby(left), Anugya, and Brayden in Cherokee National Forest sampling wild grapes and downy mildew isolates

Abby(right), Anugya, and Brayden in Cherokee National Forest's Buck's Bald area.