Past Symposia

The annual Plant Breeding, Genetics, and Biotechnology (PBGB) symposium is organized by Michigan State University graduate students. The symposium features presentations by plant scientists across many disciplines communicating their research with MSU graduate students and faculty. Invited speakers have had research interests in plant and animal breeding, genetics, genomics, molecular biology, agronomy, horticulture, ecology, and nutrition. This event provides an opportunity for graduate students to hone their organizational and personal skills while also learning from and exchanging ideas with renowned researchers. In 2019, we were thrilled to join the Corteva Plant Sciences Symposia Series.

2020 Symposium: Genome Editing Applications in Plant Breeding

December 10-11th, 2020

Invited Speakers:

  • Jennifer Kuzma, NC State University
  • Bastiaan Bargman, Virginia Tech
  • Doane Chilcoat, Corteva
  • Markita Landry, UC Berkeley

2019 Graduate Student Lighting Talk Competition Awards

First Place: Philip Engelgau - Using Nanopore Sequencing to Understand Allelic Contributions to Aroma in Apples - Michigan State University

Second Place: Erik Amezquita - Mathematics Meets Plant Science - Michigan State University 

Third Place: Catherine Clement - Molecular, Genomic and Cellular Characterization of Emerging Fusarium Wilt of Cotton Race 4 in Texas - Texas A&M

2019 Poster Competition Awards

First Place: Catherine Clement - Molecular, Genomic and Cellular Characterization of Emerging Fusarium Wilt of Cotton Race 4 in Texas - Texas A&M

Second Place: Ying-Chen Lin - QTL-seq of Young Fruit Resistance to Phytophthora capsici in Cucumber - Michigan State University 

Third Place: Blake Trygestad - Genetic Resistance to Tar Spot (Phyllachora maydis) in Maize - Michigan State University 

Annual symposium agendas are available for the past several years. Use the list below for a list of speakers and descriptions of talks.