News, Announcements and Awards

  • Congratulations to Udaya on a very smooth pass in the PhD defense today! Kudos also to his primary supervisor Dr Stacy Singer. I’m proud to have served as the co-supervisor on this journey (November 2024)

Five first-author papers and seven co-author papers during PhD study (Google Scholar), and at least two manuscripts on the way. A long list of awards A/A+ in all courses. Well done!

  • Juli passed his PhD defense. Congratulations, Dr. Wang! (May 2024)

Five first-author papers in Bioresource Technology, Biotechnology Advances, and JAFC (google scholar); two provisional patents; three co-author papers; A/A+ in all courses; contribution and training in successful funding applications and teaching practice; a long list of awards; first or co-author on manuscripts from side projects and contributions in other projects. Well done, and thank you.

Welcome to our group as the newest Postdoctoral Fellow 🙂

And, Congratulations on winning the 2024 ALES PhD Thesis Award!

  • And just got another email: Madeline Lehmann got the Alberta Graduate Excellence Scholarship. Congratulations Madeline (Nov 17, 2023)

 

  • Happy to share wonderful news: the newest MSc graduate from our lab, Kallum McDonald, is the winner of the 2023 ALES Graduate Student MSc Thesis Award. Congratulations and well done, Kallum. (Nov 16, 2023)

 

  • Some of us attended the CSPB2023 AGM. A fanstastic conference and trip, and some of us got awards. Congratulations. 

 

  • Welcome our new postdoc fellow, Dr. Khadim Hussain.
  • Welcome our new lab members Tharangani and Elias.

group photos on June 30, 2023

  • Kallum passed the MSc defense. Congratulations!

One first-author paper, one first-author book chapter, another first-author manuscript in preparation, and co-author papers in the future for the solid contributions; all A/A+ in courses; a long list of awards; very good research with the passion in plant science and crop science. Well done, and thank you!

And, Congratulations on winning the 2023 ALES Graduate Student MSc Thesis Award!

 

 

  • Holiday group lunch. Dec 2022 🙂

 

  • Farewell group lunch for Siyu. Thank you and it’s fun to do research together. Oct 2022. 

  • Yingyi just passed the MSc defense. Congratulations.

 

  • Thank you Brock for the great contribution to our team!

 

 

  • Feb 17, 2022: Lucas visited us today. 

Time flies. All people are young, but some people are younger than others (Others = the ones in the photos on the wall) 😛

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  • Photos are taken in the pandemic [  🙂  and  🙁  ]. It’s a pity we could not organize a farewell party for Elias.

 

  • Dr. Yang (Sarena) Xu accepted a Tenure-Track Assistant Professor offer from the University of Guelph. Congratulations! (April 2021)

 

  • Happy to know that former Postdoctoral fellows Yang (Sarena) Xu and Kristian Caldo are awarded the prestigious Carl Douglas Postdoctoral Prize (2021) from the Canadian Society of Plant Biologists and NSERC postdoctoral Fellowship, respectively. Congratulations. (March 2021)

 

  • Sarena’s ACBP-DGAT paper was selected as the featured article of the issue (May 2020).[link]

Cover image

  • Yingyu’s patatin-like phospholipase A paper was selected as the cover of the Dec 2019 issue by Plant Molecular Biology (Dec 2019) [link]

  • Sarena’s transferase interactome paper was selected as the featured article of the Oct 11, 2019 issue by JBC (Oct 2019)

The illustration of our article “Transferase interactome that may facilitate channeling of polyunsaturated fatty acid moieties from phosphatidylcholine to triacylglycerol” has been selected as the cover of the Oct 11, 2019 issue by the Journal of Biological Chemistry [link].

 

  • Kristian’s CCT1-SnRK1 paper in JBC was recommended in F1000Prime (Sept 2019).

Our article: Rabidness CTP:phosphocholine cytidylyltransferase 1 is phosphorylated and inhibited by sucrose nonfermenting 1-related protein kinase 1 (SnRK1)., The Journal of Biological Chemistry, 2019 (DOI: 10.3410/f.736484326.793565055), has been recommended in F1000Prime as being of special significance in its field.

Click the badge for more information:  Access the recommendation on F1000Prime

  • Our lab is recognized as one of the outstanding examples of safe work spaces (Gold Stars) on campus in 2019.

Thank you everyone for keeping our work space safe. Safety first. https://www.ualberta.ca/risk-management/insurance-and-risk-assessment/loss-prevention

  • Our DGAT variant paper was selected as the featured article and research highlight of the issue (2017). [link]

Cover image

 

  • Lucas Falarz passed his MSc exam on May 31, 2019. Congratulations.

Lucas started his MSc study on January 1, 2017 and submitted his thesis on May 7, 2019.

Up to now (June 2, 2020), Lucas has published two first-author papers in the Plant Journal and Lipids, respectivelyone co-first author paper in Journal of  Biological Chemistry, two co-author papers (Plant Journal and Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry), and three 1st-author book chapters in Plant BioproductsHe will be a co-first author of another paper in the future for his tremendous contribution.

Thanks a lot for your contribution to our lab Lucas. Your independence, self-motivation, and professional style are so impressive. You are a great team player and set a high bar here. 

 

  • Trinh Nguyen passed her MSc exam on Nov 14, 2018. Congratulations. 

Trinh started her MSc study on September 1, 2016, and submitted her thesis on October 15, 2018. Her 1st-author paper was published in Lipids. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31879987

Thank you for bravely being the first research assistant and then the first graduate student in our lab Trinh. Many thanks for your contribution. We miss your super sunny smile.

TRAINEES’ AWARDS – CONGRATULATIONS!

  • Juli Wang – 2024 ALES Graduate Student PhD Thesis Award
  • Xinjie (Winston) Liu – Plant Pathology Society of Alberta Scholarship, 2024
  • Mohammed Mukthar – Best Oral Presentation Award in the Forage category, 2024, Canadian Society of Agronomy (Plant Canada conference 2024)
  • Sameena Alam – Graduate Students’ Association Academic Travel Grant, 2024
  • Sameena Alam – J Gordin Kaplan Graduate Student Award, 2024
  • Qiong Xiao – J Gordin Kaplan Graduate Student Award, 2024
  • Sandhya Gautam – J Gordin Kaplan Graduate Student Award, 2024
  • Madeline Lehmann – Robert Simonet Graduate Scholarship, 2024
  • Udaya Subedi – Best student oral presentation award for CAPB, Plant Canada, 2024
  • Udaya Subedi – George H. Duff Travel Bursary for CSPB. Plant Canada, 2024
  • Udaya Subedi – Helen & Fred Bentley Forage Crops Graduate Scholarship in Agricultural, Life & Environmental Sciences, 2023/24
  • Udaya Subedi – Robert Simonet Travel Award – Doctoral Level, 2023/24
  • Udaya Subedi – Rogers Sugar Graduate Scholarship, 2023/24, University of Alberta
  • Udaya Subedi – Western Grains Research Foundation Endowment Fund Graduate Scholarship. 2023/24
  • Udaya Subedi –  Student Travel Award, North American Alfalfa Improvement Conference 2024
  • Madeline Lehmann – Alberta Graduate Excellence Scholarship, 2023-2024
  • Kallum McDonald – 2023 ALES Graduate Student MSc Thesis Award
  • Madeline Lehmann – Honourable Mention for the Presidents’ Award, poster, The Canadian Society of Plant Biologists Conference, 2023
  • Madeline Lehmann – George H. Duff travel bursary CSPB 2023 annual conference, 2023
  • Madeline Lehmann – Robert Simonet Graduate Scholarship, 2023
  • Mianmian Zhu – ThermoFisher poster award, The Canadian Society of Plant Biologists Conference, 2023
  • Mianmian Zhu – George H Duff Travel Bursary, The Canadian Society of Plant Biologists Conference, 2023
  • Xiaoyu Wang – George H Duff Travel Bursary, The Canadian Society of Plant Biologists Conference, 2023
  • Kallum McDonald – Dr Bruce Jeffery Canola Travel Award – Master’s Level 2022/23
  • Kallum McDonald – Robert Simonet Graduate Scholarship, 2022/23
  • Kallum McDonald – Robert Simonet Travel Award – Master’s Level 2022/23
  • Kallum McDonald – Simone Demers-Collins Graduate Travel Scholarship in Agriculture 2022/23
  • Mohammed Mukthar – The 1st place prize in Poster Presentation, Joint Annual General Meeting, Canadian Weed Science Society & Canadian Society of Agronomy, 2022
  • Mohammed Mukthar – Ali Navabi Grad Student Travel award, Canadian Society of Agronomy, 2022
  • Juli Wang – Professor JB McQuitty Graduate Scholarship 2022/23
  • Juli Wang – Bern and Donna Kotelko Travel Award in Bioresource Excellence, 2022
  • Juli Wang – Alberta Innovates Graduate Student Scholarship, 2022-2023
  • Juli Wang – Donald A Shaw Memorial Graduate Scholarship 2022/23
  • Juli Wang – Dr Michael E. Stiles Graduate Scholarship in Applied Microbiology 2022/23
  • Xiaoyu Wang –  Alberta Canola Producers Graduate Award in Canola Production Research, 2022
  • Mianmian Zhu – Bern and Donna Kotelko Travel Award in Bioresource Excellence, 2022
  • Udaya Subedi – Graduate Student Travel Award 2023/24
  • Udaya Subedi – Helen & Fred Bentley Forage Crops Graduate Scholarship in Agricultural, Life & Environmental Sciences 2022/23
  • Udaya Subedi – Henry Kroeger Memorial Graduate Scholarship 2022/23
  • Udaya Subedi – Robert Simonet Scholarship – Doctoral Level  2022/23
  • Kallum McDonald – Member of The Canadian Agricultural Youth Council, 2022-2023
  • Kallum McDonald – The 1st place on the student’s oral presentation, Canadian Association for Plant Biotechnology 2022 Conference
  • Kallum McDonald – Travel award, Canadian Association for Plant Biotechnology 2022 Conference
  • Kallum McDonald – Travel award, Canadian Association for Plant Biotechnology 2022 Conference
  • Kallum McDonald – Canadian Society of Plant Biologists Waygood Award – – Canadian Society of Plant Biologists west regional meeting, 2021
  • Kallum McDonald – the best oral presentation – Canadian Society of Plant Biologists west regional meeting, 2021
  • Kallum McDonald – ALES travel grant, 2021
  • Juli Wang – Alberta Innovates Graduate Student Scholarship, 2021-2022
  • Juli Wang – Professor JB McQuitty Graduate Scholarship 2021/22
  • Siyu Wang – CSC Scholarship for Visiting Student, 2021
  • Xiaoyu Wang – CSC PhD Scholarship, 2021
  • Mianmian Zhu – Alberta Canola Producers Graduate Award in Canola Production Research, 2021
  • Mianmian Zhu – Guelph Food Technology Centre (GFTC) Legacy Fund Scholarship, 2021
  • Sandhya Gautam – Molly and Spencer Dier Memorial Scholarship 2021
  • Kethmi Jayawardhane Agrisera Award in the Canadian Society of Plant Biologists annual meeting, 2021
  • Udaya Subedi – Alberta Innovates Graduate Student Scholarship 2020/2021; 2021-2022
  • Udaya Subedi – Canadian Society of Plant Biologists Annual Meeting Award, 2021
  • Udaya Subedi – Henry Kroeger Memorial Scholarship, 2021
  • Mianmian Zhu – CSC PhD Scholarship, 2021
  • Mianmian Zhu – University of Alberta Doctoral Recruitment Scholarship, University of Alberta, 2021
  • Xiaoyu Wang – University of Alberta Doctoral Recruitment Scholarship, University of Alberta, 2021
  • Qiong Xiao – Alberta Canola Producers Graduate Award in Canola Production Research, 2020
  • Udaya Subedi – Alberta Innovates Graduate Student Scholarship 2020-2021
  • Udaya Subedi –Western Grains Research Foundation Graduate Scholarship, 2020
  • Qiyuan Shan – CSC Scholarship for Visiting Student, 2019
  • Kethmi Jayawardhane – Plant Pathology Society of Alberta Scholarship, 2019
  • Kethmi Jayawardhane – Best Student Presentation Award at the 40th Plant Pathology Society of Alberta Annual Meeting, 2019
  • Qiong Xiao – Alberta Canola Producers Graduate Award in Canola Production Research, 2019
  • Qiong Xiao – CSC PhD Scholarship, 2019
  • Juli Wang – University of Alberta Doctoral Recruitment Scholarship, University of Alberta, 2019
  • Junhao Lu – Undergraduate Research Initiative (URI) Undergraduate Researcher Stipend, University of Alberta, 2019
  • Junhao Lu – First Class Standing, University of Alberta, 2019
  • Junhao Lu – Graduation with Distinction, University of Alberta, 2019
  • Udaya Subedi – University of Alberta Doctoral Recruitment Scholarship, University of Alberta, 2019
  • Kethmi Jayawardhane – Simone Demers-Collins Graduate Travel Scholarship in Agriculture, 2018
  • Kethmi Jayawardhane – Alberta Canola Producers Graduate Award in Canola Production Research, 2018
  • Lucas Falarz – George H Duff Travel Bursary for the CSPB conference, The Canadian Society of Plant Biologists, 2018
  • Lucas Falarz – Travel Award, Department of Biological Sciences & Faculty of Science, University of Manitoba, 2018
  • Lucas Falarz – Travel Award, Faculty of Graduate Studies, University of Manitoba, 2018
  • Lucas Falarz – International Graduate Student Entrance Scholarship, University of Manitoba, 2017
  • Trinh Nguyen – George H Duff Travel Bursary for the CSPB conference, The Canadian Society of Plant Biologists, 2017