| 2008 | |
| September 15, 2008. Venkatesan Parkunan successfully defended his Ph.D. dissertation, "Induced Disease Resistance Elicited by Acibenzolar-S-methyl and Plant Growth-Promoting Rhizobacteria in Tobacco." Co-Advisors: Charles Johnson and Jon Eisenback. |
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| August 11, 2008. Troy Hoff successfully defended his Ph.D. dissertation, "Regulatory Networks Mediating Resistance and Susceptibility of Arabidopsis thaliana to the Downy Mildew Pathogen Hyaloperonospora parasitica." Advisor: John McDowell. |
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| August 1, 2008. Jeneylyne Colcol successfully defended her M.S. thesis, "Fungicide Sensitivity of Erysiphe necator and Plasmopara viticola from Virginia and Nearby States." Advisor: Anton Baudoin. |
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| April 30, 2008. Jian Sun successfully defended his Ph.D. dissertation, "Investigating the evolution of gene families using synthetic gene clusters in Arabidopsis thaliana." Advisor: John Jelesko. |
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