Dr. Johanna Del Castillo Múnera

Assistant Professor of Cooperative Extension
Department of Plant Pathology
University of California, Davis
Email: jdelcastillo@ucdavis.edu

Ph.D., Plant Pathology, Michigan State University
M.S. Biological Sciences, Universidad de los Andes, Bogota, Colombia
B.S. Microbiology, Universidad de los Andes, Bogota, Colombia
Areas of interest: Basic biologic understanding of fungal and oomycete pathogens, and development of applied research to solve current problems that agriculture faces in greenhouse to the field continuum. I am particularly interested in developing and improving sustainable solutions for disease control through studies of fungal and oomycete biology, population genetics, and community ecology.

Dean Watson

Staff Research Associate
Accreditation to Improve Restoration (AIR)
email: dcwatson@ucdavis.edu
B.S. Biological Sciences, UC Davis

Areas of Interest: Understanding Plant Pathosystems, including Microbial Ecology, Mycology, and Plant-Pathogen Relationships; Restoration Pathology and Ecology, California Native Habitat Restoration and Environmental Protection, and Disease Diagnostics. Teaching, Mentorship, and Science Communication.

 

Saskia Mesquida Desire Pesci

Post-doctoral researcher
email: smesquidapesci@ucdavis.edu
PhD. Plant Pathology, University of California, Davis
M.S. Plant Biotechnology, Wageningen University and Research
B.S. Biotechnology, Technical University of Madrid

Areas of interest: plant-microbe interactions, fungal and oomycete diseases of plants, development of disease diagnostic tools, applied solutions for disease management, teaching, outreach.

 

Juanita Gil Bedoya

Post-doctoral researcher
email: jgilbedoya@ucdavis.edu
PhD. Plant Pathology, University of Arkansas
M.Sc. Computational Biology, Universidad de Los Andes, Bogota, Colombia
B.Sc. Biotechnology, Hochschule Emden/Leer, Emden, Germany
B.Sc. Human and Animal Toxicology, Athlone, Ireland

Areas of interest: Applying genomics to study plant-microbe interactions, plant disease resistance, pathogen population changes, and microbial communities and their diversity. Translating research into solutions for plant disease management. Outreach and scientific communication.

 

Megan Gastelum

Graduate Student
email: megastelum@ucdavis.edu
B.S. Ecology, Evolution, and Biodiversity, minor: Global Disease Biology, UC Davis

Areas of interest: Characterizing fungal and oomycete pathogens in vegetable transplants and ornamentals, systems aproach for disease management.  General interest in sustainable agriculture practices, extension and outreach, population-based disease ecology and disease diagnostics.

 

Natalie Troglio

Graduate student
email: njtroglio@ucdavis.edu
B.S Plant Sciences, emphasis in Crop Production and Integrated Pest Management, UC Davis

Areas of interest: Integrated Pest Management, development of diagnostic tools, fungal and oomycete diseases, biological controls, Farmer outreach and education on IPM.

 

Kayleigh Lampe

Junior Specialist
email: klampe@ucdavis.edu
B.S. Biological Sciences (Ecology, Evolution, and Conservation), Sacramento State University

Areas of interest: Plant disease diagnostics, Best Management Practices in nursery production, genetic resistance and biotechnology applied into plant disease management.

 

Indiana Waterman

Staff Research Associate
email: ijwaterman@ucdavis.edu
B.S. B.S. Plant Science, University of California, Davis

Areas of interest: Agroecology, Environmental Conservation and Restoration, Plant and Fungal Ecology, CA Native Plant Communities, Plant-Microbe Interactions, Sustainable Agriculture, Plant Disease Diagnostics, Soil Science, IPM, Plant Pathology, Plant Production, Greenhouse Management.

 

 

CURRENT UNDERGRADUATE RESEARCH ASSISTANTS

Joey Nguyen, jpen@ucdavis.edu
Fatema Alsulaiman, falsulaiman@ucdavis.edu
My Tran, mytran@ucdavis.edu
Simone Ferrigno, swferrigno@ucdavis.edu
Elise Piller, empiller@ucdavis.edu
Jeannine Santiago, jisantiago@ucdavis.edu
Vivian Sapovits, vjsapovits@ucdavis.edu
Cecilia Abiva, ccabiva@ucdavis.edu
Connor Goralka, clgoralka@ucdavis.edu
Nadine Lanila, nclanila@ucdavis.edu

PAST LAB MEMBERS

Sergio Gabriel Peralta (Post-doctoral researcher)
Sophia Acker (Junior Specialists)
Taylor Giamo (Lab technician)
Evan Padhiar (Undergraduate Research Assistant)
Bruno del Moral (Undergraduate Research Assistant)
Ruchika Kashyap (Former Post-doctoral researcher, currently Assistant Professor, Urban and Controlled Environment Pathology, University of Georgia)
Cynthia DuBridge (Undergraduate Research Assistant)
Rahul Chawda (Undergraduate Research Assistant)
Kathelyn Vang (Undergraduate Research Assistant)
Emily Carranza (Undergraduate Research Assistant)
Dimitri Arndt-Truong (Undergraduate Research Assistant)
Andy Salazar (Junior Specialist)
Maggie Pena (Undergraduate Research Assistant)
Javier Damian Casillas (Undergraduate Research Assistant)
Ushta Samal (Undergraduate Research Assistant)
Natalie Troglio (Undergraduate Research Assistant)
Elver Lopez Raymundo (Lab technician)
Molly Irvin (Undergraduate Research Assistant)
Jesica Calderon (Undergraduate Research Assistant)