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Student Spotlight

May 2025

Melissa Vergara, PhD Candidate, vergaram@oregonstate.edu 

Melissa received Foundation for Food and Agriculture (FFAR) Fellowship sponsored by the College of Agricultural Sciences and the Botany and Plant Pathology department at Oregon State University. Her research explores the differences among various wheat cultivars in their ability to accumulate beneficial microbes along their roots and how these beneficial microbes combat Take-all disease.

Hayley Richardson, PhD, parkhay@oregonstate.edu

Hayley received OSU Agricultural Research Foundation Grant in Identifying Breeding Strategies for Microbiome-Mediated Multiple Disease Resistance in Winter Wheat from the 2025-2027 Award Cycle. Her research focuses on how different wheat cultivars shape their microbiomes over time, and how these long-term dynamics relate to multiple disease resistance or susceptibility.