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. 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 is currently a Postdoctoral Research Associate at Texas A&M investigating molecular cytogenetics of cotton.
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.
Doctoral
Dr. Yilong Yang
PhD, Genetics (2016)
Dr. Yang's projects included defining genome composition in the octoploid Fragaria species and utilizing bioinformatics to analyze genome composition of octoploid and pentaploid strawberries. He is presently employed as a Bioinformatics Scientist at GeneWiz, R&D genomics service.
Dr. Kelly J Vining
PhD Genetics (2007)
Dr. Vining initially began working in the Davis lab after completing her M.S. with Dr. Brent Loy at UNH. She then pursued her PhD in the Genetics program working on the genetics and genomics of mint species, with an emphasis on identifying genes responsible for Verticillium wilt resistance. Dr. Vining moved on to a Postdoctoral position at Oregon State University, which transitioned into her current position of Assistant Professor in the Deparment of Horticulture. Dr. Kelly Vining, Oregon State University.
Laura DiMeglio
B.S. General Studies in Life Sciences 2000
Laura joined the Davis lab during her undergraduate work at UNH. After completing her B.S., she initially pursued her M.S. in the Genetics program, and that transitioned into the PhD program. As a PhD candidate, Laura completed all the research aspects of her degree, but moved on to raise her family. She is currently active in a homeschool community and is on the board of the homeshcool Cooperative Learning Project, as well as being a massage therapist.
Dr. Chaoyang Deng
PhD Genetics (2001)
Dr. Vijayashri Paruvangada
PhD Genetics (1993)
Master's
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. Currently, Erin is now a research associate in the Yeast Lab at Yumanity Therapeutics, where she is responsible for yeast model construction and screening with novel compounds, and flow cytometry testing of yeast models with novel compounds.
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, in Massachusetts, working on diagnostic test development, and subsequently moved on to Weather Analytics in Portsmouth, NH where she is now the data science manager.
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
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. Susequently, he performed genetic research in apple and received his PhD in Horticulture at Cornell. He is currently a postdoctoral associate researcher at Cornell, investigating the genetic and physiological basis of bitter pit in apple.
Elizabeth Poulsen
B.S. Biochemistry 2007
M.S. Genetics 2010
Liz joined the Davis lab after completing her B.S. in at UNH. 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.
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 technical specialist at Nelson Mullins Riley & Scarborough law firm.
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. Most recently, she has taken a few years off to be with her family, but is now preparing to return to the horticultural industry.
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 an associate scientist at Biogen Idec.
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 now the founder and CEO of his own company, Namocell, in the San Francisco Bay area.
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.
