2025 Corteva Travel Scholarship Recipients

Jonathan Concepcion

Jhon is a PhD Candidate in Plant Breeding, Genetics, and Biotechnology at Michigan State University working on the application of phenomics on evaluating and predicting fusarium head blight resistance and grain yield in soft winter wheat. At the same time, he is working on integrating phenomics with genomics to further increase prediction accuracy and selection intensity, and to identify genomic regions to further understand the genetic architecture for these complex traits. Outside of doing research, he is actively involved in various non-profit, academic, and scientific organizations.

Title: UAV-Derived Information and Genomic Data Integration for Enhanced Grain Yield Predictions in Soft Winter Wheat

Elizabeth “Bodie” Fletcher

Elizabeth “Bodie” Fletcher, a native of Smithfield, Virginia, is a dedicated plant scientist with a strong background in crop improvement and genetics. She earned her Bachelor of Science degree in Crop and Soil Environmental Sciences from Virginia Tech in 2018. Following her undergraduate studies, Bodie pursued her Master of Science in Plant Breeding and Genetics at North Carolina State University, where she collaborated with the USDA Nitrogen Fixation Unit. Her master’s research focused on improving drought and flood tolerance in soybean varieties, addressing critical challenges in sustainable agriculture. In 2022, Bodie returned to Virginia Tech to pursue a PhD in Plant Breeding and Genetics as part of the Soybean Breeding Program. Her doctoral research emphasizes advancing value-added innovations in soybean meal and food products, with the goal of enhancing the economic and nutritional impact of soybeans in the global market.

Title: CRISPR in the Field: Evaluating Field Performance of CRISPR-Edited Low Trypsin Inhibitor Soybean

Subash Thapa

Subash, originally from Nepal, currently pursuing a Ph.D. in the Department of Agronomy, Horticulture, and Plant Science at South Dakota State University, working under the guidance of Dr. Sunish Sehgal in the Winter Wheat Breeding Lab. I hold an M.S. in Plant Pathology from Punjab Agricultural University, India. My current research integrates genomic and phenomic approaches to predict traits related to Fusarium Head Blight (FHB) in winter wheat. I also utilize QSorter, an advanced robot for single kernel analysis, to improve FDK estimation accuracy. In addition to FHB, I investigate bacterial and fungal diseases, with a focus on identifying resistance loci.

Title: High-Throughput QSorter and Hyperspectral Imaging Improve Predictive Accuracy for FHB-Related Traits in Winter Wheat

Corteva Travel Scholarship

Introduced in 2016 to foster interaction between graduate students studying plant breeding at Texas A&M and the students studying plant breeding or related science at other institutions. The program encourages information exchange on research ideas and promotes networking among students at the symposium. The scholarship is solely administered by the symposium organizing committee and is fully funded by Corteva.

Graduate Travel Scholars Division

ABSTRACTS DUE JANUARY 15TH, 2025

Three students will be selected to present oral keynote lectures during the day of the symposium. The presentation will be a 10 minute oral followed by 5 minutes of questions. In addition, awardees may present a poster of their research to allow for follow-up discussion during the poster session. Selected student finalists will receive a travel scholarship and hotel accommodations for the symposium. Finally, visiting travel scholars will have the opportunity to arrange meetings with local researchers the following day.


Eligibility for the Corteva Travel Scholarship

  • Applicants must be full-time graduate students at United States college affiliated institutions.

  • All applicants must upload their "Presentation Title”, "Presentation Abstract," and other required information into the student competition sign-up form.

  • All applicants must follow the abstract submission guidelines.

  • All applicants must send their research presentation electronically no later than the day prior to the scheduled presentation.

  • Applicant must agree to arrive on February 19th and leave on February 21st.

Criteria for selection of oral presentations for the prize-winning presentations

  • The originality of the research presented, which may or may not be explicitly related to the symposium theme

  • The quality of the writing (including clarity, grammar, and understandable)

  • The interest of the subject matter and approach

  • The suitability of the conference presentation (including appropriate length, clear results obtained, and appropriate conclusions).

  • The Graduate Student Organizing Committee will evaluate blind abstracts to select the three awardees.

  • In fairness to other participants, abstracts that are over the specific word limit will automatically be disqualified.