Postdoctoral
Dr Lise L Mahoney
B.S Chemical Engineering (1976)
M.S. Plant Biology (2007)
PhD Plant Biology (2014)
Research Assistant Professor
After retiring from a successful career as a chemical engineer, Lise returned to UNH to complete her Master's and PhD degrees in plant biology, and then continued as a post-doc in the Davis lab, breeding strawberries. Now employed as a research assistant professor at the University, Dr. Mahoney collaborates with the Davis lab, continuing her strawberry breeding work.
Dr. Daniel Frailey
PhD
While in the Davis Lab, Dan performed bioinformatics with respect to studying the genomics of crops such as chickpea and strawberry. Dan is currently working at WuXi in Philadelphia. The company tests drugs being developed by other companies. Dan is in their sequencing group, sequencing vectors and plasmids to ascertain that there are no variants.
Dr. Qian Zhang
PhD
Research Scientist
Dr. Zhang was with the Davis Lab for many years as a postdoctoral researcher performing biotechnological research and tissue culture with Fragaria species. She is currently performing research in plant biotechnology at Virginia Tech.
Dr. Bo Liu
PhD
Postdoctoral research scientist
Dr. Liu came to the Davis Lab as a postdoctoral researcher investigating comparative genomics via cytogenetic studies on Fragaria species. She continued her Postdoctoral work at Texas A&M investigating molecular cytogenetics of cotton and is currently a scientist at FujiFilm Diosynth Biotechnologies.
Dr. Hongrun Yu
Dr Yu earned his PhD at UNH studying soybeans with As a post-doc in the Davis Lab, Hongrun investigated genetic linkage and segregation distortion in diploid strawberries. He went on to do medical research at Wake Forest University School of Medicine, and is currently an assistant research professor at Yoma Linda University, investigating bone health.
Master's
Samikshya Rijal
M.S. Genetics (2020)
While at UNH, Samikshya specialized in small fruit breeding. Her research activities involved marker-assisted breeding and tissue culture in strawberries. She is now a graduate research assistant pursuing her Doctoral degree in Agricultural and Horticultural Plant Breeding at the University of Georgia.
Madhav Subedi
M.S. Genetics (2020)
While at UNH, Madav's research focused on studying locally adapted ancestral plant of quinoa i.e. C. ficifolium, as a model to study quinoa genome and identify genes associated with traits of interest. Madhav is now a graduate research assistant pursuing a Ph.D. at the University of Georgia, Institute of Plant Breeding, Genetics, and Genomics (IPBGG). His research focuses on carrying out genome-wide association mapping (GWAS) using a diversity panel of soft red winter wheat for genetic dissection of agronomic and quality traits in wheat.
Erin Neff
M.S. Biological Sciences (2017)
During her time at UNH, Erin evaluated the Chenopodium species in Northern New England as a potential source of novel genetic material for quinoa (C. quinoa) breeding programs, which included the rediscovery of a C. foggii population in Maine, and the development of several cytomolecular tools for future work in this area. Erin worked as a research associate in the Yeast Lab at Yumanity Therapeutics, where she was responsible for yeast model construction and screening with novel compounds, and flow cytometry testing of yeast models with novel compounds. She worked as the Microbiology team lead at Versatope Therapeutics, where she focused on developing bacterial strains for the production of recombinant outer membrane vesicles to be used as a universal-style influenza vaccine. Currently, she is the Program and Alliance Manager at Versatope Therapeutics, where she manages all internal projects as well as the relationships with external research and manufacturing contractors.
Sarah Levy
While in the Davis lab, Sarah worked on a New England region, multi-institutional weed project, in which she focused on bioinformatics and next generation technologies. After graduating, Sarah parlayed the focus on bioinformatics, first by taking a position at Laboratory for Molecular Development, working on diagnostic test development, then at Weather Analytics in Portsmouth, NH as a data science manager. Currently, Sarah is a Senior Business Inteligence Engineer with Amazon.
Dave Wood
B.S. Biology (2012)
Dave entered the Master's progam in Genetics with a focus in bioinformatics. Dave completed most of the requirements for his degree, but moved into the industry sector and is currently working as the principal data scientist at Argo Digital.
Xin Ding
M.S. Biological Sciences 2012
Ding joined the Davis lab to invesitigate the potential roles of specific genes of interest to plant breeders with regard to sex determination in strawberries. After completing his M.S. at UNH, he moved on to get an M.B.A. at Babson College, and is currently the Assistant President of the Wuhan Dangdai Group in China, and is in charge of global strategic investment and acquisition in pharmaceuticals for the group.
Zahra Hadadian O'Connor
M.S. Biological Sciences 2010
Zahra worked on the Davis lab's mint project, developing the genomic resources that would allow for the construction of a genetic linkage map. After completing her M.S., Zahra moved into the industry sector while also starting a family.
Dr. Benjamin M Orcheski
M.S. Genetics 2010
Dr. Orcheski joined the Davis lab as an undergraduate, and continued with Dr. Davis pursuing his M.S., investigating the genetics of sex determination in Fragaria virginiana. Subsequently, he performed genetic research in apple and received his PhD in Horticulture at Cornell. He continued working as a postdoctoral associate researcher at Cornell, investigating the genetic and physiological basis of bitter pit in apple. and is now a scientist at the New Zealand Institute for Plant and Food Research Ltd, as an apple and pear breeder.
Elizabeth Poulsen
B.S. Molecular Biology 2005
M.S. Genetics 2010
Liz joined the Davis lab as an undergraduate in the Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program (UROP) and with a Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowships (SURF), then continued in the lab during her Masters in genetics. She developed a pentaploid population of Fragaria (strawberry) to gain insight into octoploid genome composition and allele transmission patterns. After graduating, Liz began working at Kansas State University Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory in the Molecular R&D lab, where she is now the lab manager. There she helps design and validate sequencing, genotyping, qPCR, and end-point PCR assays for animal pathogens and has also further developed her bioinformatics skills.
Dr. Robin Brese
Dr. Brese joined the Davis lab as a Master's student. Her research included contructing a cDNA library from developing flower buds of the yellow-fruited strawberry, Fragaria vesca ssp vesca cv. 'Yellow Wonder', and analyzing the resultant sequences of the Expressed Sequence Tags (ESTs). She worked as a research assistant at Brown University for a few years, then continued her education, getting a PhD at the University of Massachusetts Medical School (2016). She is currently a Patent Attorney at Dicerna Pharmaceuticals, Inc. in Boston, MA,.
Andrea Quintana Penilla
Andrea performed genetic research in in the Davis lab, investigating flower color determination in the ornamental bedding plant Anagallis monelli . After completing her M.S., Andrea took a position as an orchid breeder at Oglesby Plant International. She then returned to her native contry, Columbia, and went on to become the Laboratory Director for C.I. Paso de Luna (now a Florigene company) in Bogata. She worked for a number of years at Ball Horticulture (Bogata) ultimately becoming a Research Associate evaluating new floral products. In recent years, she has been raising a family and has opened her own bakery business, Alevri Recetas de Casa, in Medellin, Columbia.
Peter Reavey
M.S. Genetics (2002)
Peter investigated segregation distortion of alleles and maternal inheritance of organelles in Fragaria vesca while in the Davis Lab. Subsequent to completing his M.S., he took a position as an associate scientist at Human Genome Sciences, and is currently a senior associate scientist at Biogen Idec, managing Quality Control projects for the manufacturing and release of biopharmaceuticals..
Dr. Junyu Lin
M.S. Plant Biology (1997)
Dr. Lin came to the Davis lab from the Shanghai Jiao Tong University, where he earned his B.S. in Biochemical Engineering. At UNH, he investigated the chlorplast genome in Fragaria species. He went on to obtain his PhD in Genetics from the University of Wisconsin, Madison and was a postdoctoral fellow at Stanford. Since then he has been a scientist at Five Prime Therapeutics, and is the founder and CEO of his own company, Namocell, in the San Francisco Bay area, now functioning as its Director.
Scott Williamson
M.S. Plant Science (1993)
While in the Davis lab, Scott helped develop and assess the strawberry gerplasm collection.
Dr. Ken Haymes
M.S. Plant Biology (1993)
Ann Greene
B.S. (1988)
M.S Plant Science (1992)
Anne performed research on tissue culture and genetic transformation of Fragaria vesca while in the Davis Lab. Anne went on to pursue her doctoral degree at Michigan State University, but sadly, Anne died in a car crash during her time there.
Jacqueline Heard
M.S. Plant Science (1992)
Jackie worked in the Davis lab studying the biological characterization of nodulation mutant lines of chickpeas.
Dr. Leslie Matthews
M.S. Plant Science (1988)
Dr. Matthews studied the characterization and breeding of non-nodulating chickpeas while working on her M.S. in the Davis lab. Leslie went on to pursue a PhD in genetics (1998) at the University of Missouri-Columbia. She is currently working as an environmental scientist at the Vermont Department of Environmental Conservation.
