Current Students

Heldi Bowman

My motto is “nothing is impossible” and I like to enjoy life as much as possible. I am a native of the beautiful Shenandoah Valley situated under the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia. After graduating from high school I attended Blue Ridge Community College where I received an Associates degree for transfer. I then attended the Horticulture program of West Virginia University (WVU) in Morgantown, WV. During my undergraduate career I worked as a Resident Life Assistant; Laboratory assistant to Dr. Joe Morton, curator international collection of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi; implemented IPM in the West Virginia University Research Greenhouses and developed the IPM handbook; and Managed the WVU organic market garden. I continued my education at WVU and received my Master of Agriculture, Forestry, and Consumer Sciences degree with focus in Horticulture. For my graduate research I studied the carnation ethylene binding protein (CEBP-1) involved in the ethylene signal transduction pathway under the guidance of Dr. Sven Verlinden, Dr. Dale Karlson, and Dr. Todd West. The ultimate goal is to further elucidate the ethylene signal transduction pathway and increase postharvest quality of floriculture products. Although most of my time was spent in the lab, I still squeezed in time for cross-country skiing, mountain biking, trail running, and working in an artisan bakery. I run several half-marathons a year and looking forward to participating in some triathlons. The Doctor of Plant Medicine program is fantastic because of the inter-departmental approach to studying and understanding plant disease issues in the horticultural industry. I started this program in the spring semester of 2005 and am currently working in landscape nematology with Dr. Crow. 

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