Postdoc Profiles

We are proud of the excellent work K-State postdocs are doing. Here are some great examples:

Berangere Leys is a research associate in the department of geography. She is a paleo-ecologist, interested in fire ecology and its biogeochemical consequences on ecosystems. Her research is funded by the National Science Foundation and is focused on grassland and savanna ecosystem fire regimes. She investigates the role of climate and human history in changes in the fire regimes and their consequences on the nutrient cycling and vegetation dynamics in the past 20,000 years. She participates in the K-State Office for the Advancement of Women in Science and Engineering events and has received a travel grant from the group. She is actively looking at academic positions and preparing research grants. She hopes the K-State Postdoc Association can help her to connect with other postdocs to share experiences and tips about tenure track position applications and interviews.

 

Katherine Jordan is a postdoc in the department of plant pathology and explores the genetic diversity of the hexaploid wheat genome. To date, she has helped develop the first haplotype map resource for the wheat community to use in genome-wide association mapping studies and breeding programs. In 2014, she was awarded the International Wheat Genome Sequencing Consortium Early Career Award for her work on the wheat HapMap project. She hopes to continue to improve genomic resources within the wheat community to aid in understanding genotype-phenotype interactions, which can provide useful genetic material adaptable to certain environments (i.e., drought and pathogen resistance) to increase future global wheat production. In addition, Katie is the chair of the Flint Hills Human Rights Project and has advocated for an anti-discrimination ordinance that would provide protections based on sexual orientation and gender equality.

 

Alma Laney is originally from Coos Bay, Oregon, and began his research career as an undergraduate at Oregon State University. After completing his master's and PhD at the University of Arkansas working on various plant viruses, he began working as a postdoc in the K-State department of plant pathology. His main areas of focus have been on developing detection assays for yellow dwarf viruses (YDVs) infecting winter wheat in Kansas, detection of YDVs in advanced breeding plots, and the biological and molecular characterization of the YDVs in Kansas. His future work includes functional characterization of novel genetic changes in YDV populations found in Kansas, for which he recently was awarded a USDA-NIFA ELI Postdoctoral Fellowship.