Graduate Research Assistant — Computational Genomics & Quantitative Genetics                                                              2023 – Present

Washington State University, Pullman, WA |PI: Dr. Deven R. See

• Developed GWAS_GS2, an R-based framework testing whether GWAS-informed marker weighting improves prediction over GBLUP; demonstrated that leakage-prone validation overstated apparent model performance, with predictive R² decreasing 57.6% under independent three-way validation.

• Assembled and annotated pseudomolecule-scale genomes of two hexaploid wheat cultivars Madsen and Pritchett using PacBio HiFi data, including the first such assembly for club wheat; identified structural rearrangements and disease-resistance introgressions through comparative genomics, demonstrating how cultivar-specific references reveal breeding-relevant variation that a single reference may not adequately represent.

• Investigated cold-induced late maturity α-amylase in 352 barley accessions; refined GWAS using biologically informed susceptibility groups and treatment conditions, identifying nine associated SNPs and prioritizing candidate genes through wheat–barley comparative synteny.

• Developed 480 F₅ wheat lines combining McNeal adaptive linkage blocks with diversity from four landraces; applied KASP-based selection and coordinated with a specialized stripe rust research group to integrate disease screening with genomic characterization of breeding material.

• Compared four SNP-selection strategies using barley genotypes and simulated polygenic phenotypes; found that GWAS-assisted selection achieved high predictive accuracy, while stability-informed marker selection offered greater consistency across train-test splits.

• Evaluated eight GWAS methods using wheat phenotypes, comparing statistical power, false-positive control, and computational efficiency; identified advantages of multi-locus methods, including MLMM, FarmCPU, and BLINK, while demonstrating trade-offs in association-detection performance.

• Collaborated in a research team to process sequencing data, assemble, and analyze a haplotype-resolved 'Granny Smith' apple genome, supporting the characterization of genomic variation between chromosome haplotypes.

 

Graduate Research Assistant — Wheat Breeding & FHB Resistance Genetics                                                                              2021 – 2023

North Dakota State University, Fargo, ND |PI: Dr. Gideon F. Marais

• Dissected the genetic architecture of Fusarium head blight resistance using an 11-parent diallel (55 F₁ hybrids), identifying predominant additive genetic effects and promising parents to inform resistance pyramiding and parental selection in wheat breeding.

• Characterized alien chromosome composition in 47 D-tritipyrum lines using genotyping-by-sequencing and cytogenetics, identifying 19 Jᵈ chromosome combinations and selecting 10 promising lines for developing salt-tolerant wheat breeding populations.

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Undergraduate Practicum Assessment — Department of Plant Breeding                                                                                      2019 – 2020

Institute of Agriculture and Animal Sciences, Lamjung Campus, Nepal |Advisors: Dr. Ankur Poudel and Dr. Pradeep Wagle

• Evaluated 14 hybrid maize genotypes under field conditions in the mid-hills of Nepal to compare agronomic performance and identify promising genotypes using yield traits, genetic variability, heritability, genetic advance, correlation, and cluster analyses.