Mathew Li Wins First Place in Young Scholar Oral Presentation Competition!

Over this summer our lab had the pleasure of hosting Stevenson High School student Mathew Li through the UGA CAES Young Scholar program. Mathew worked with one of our graduate students on determining the sporulation rates of various isolates of Stagonosporopsis fungi so that they can be used for phenotyping watermelon lines for resistance to gummy stem blight. Mathew’s work helped to identify 8 isolates with sufficient spore production for making GSB inoculum, as well as determining which species of Stagonosporopsis each of the isolates belonged to. Mathew took first place in the Athens division of the Young Scholar oral presentation competition, continuing the McGregor lab's tradition of victory in the Young Scholar program. We look forward to seeing great things from Matt and hope that he chooses UGA to continue his educational journey.