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​Frank L. H​aynes Graduate Student Competition Award Winners​

2016 Award Winners

1st place: Venkata Charepalli from Jairam Vanamala’s group at The Pennsylvania State University

Title: A novel proteomic approach reveals molecular insights for anti-colon cancer efficacy of color-fleshed potatoes.

Venkata evaluated the effect of baked purple flesh potatoes against colon cancer stem cells in mice. He found that including purple potatoes in the diet decreased the amount of a molecular indicator of colon cancer stem cells and suppressed tumor incidence. Venkata presented his methods and findings clearly and with great enthusiasm.

2nd place: Curtis Frederick from Paul Bethke’s group at the University of Wisconsin

Title: Evaluation of hyperspectral reflectance for estimating dry matter and sugar concentration in processing potatoes.

Curtis evaluated hyperspectral reflectance imaging as a tool for estimating potato tuber dry matter content and sugar contents. He found that this method could be used accurately and rapidly to measure within tuber dry matter content in field, storage, or lab settings. Curtis explained a complex topic clearly, using carefully prepared visual aids and a relaxed presentation style.

3rd place (tie): Chandler Dolezal from Mark Pavek’s group at Washington State University

Title: The effects and economic implications of differing phosphorus fertilizer application techniques and rates.

Chandler examined how phosphorous application rate and method of application influenced potato growth, profitability and potential environmental impacts. His data showed that method of application had little effect, and high phosphorous rates were inadvisable. Chandler gave a compelling rational for his research and presented his data in a way that was logical and easy to follow.

3rd place (tie): Kathryn Bolding from Mark Pavek’s group at Washington State University.

Title: Cultural management of Clearwater Russet.

Kathryn described research on how seed spacing and nitrogen fertilization rate effected marketable yield and economic value of the recently introduced fry processing variety Clearwater Russet. Kathryn gave a poised, clear presentation that included recommendations for seed spacing and petiole nitrates that maximize economic value of the harvested crop.

2015 Award Winners

1st Place: Derek Herman from Dr. Rick Knowles' group.

Title: Screening sweetening-resistant clones for tolerance to heat stress.

Derek developed a post harvest protocol to identify lines that do not lose their resistance to coldinduced sweetening (CIS) as a result of heat stress. Potatoes with low invertase as a result of RNAi silencing were shown to maintain resistance to cold induced sweetening following a heat stress treatment, but many other clones lost resistance to CIS. Payette Russet, a new line from the Idaho breeding program, was a rare example of a conventionally bred clone that had excellent CIS resistance following the heat stress treatment.

2nd Place: Luke Steere from Dr. William Kirk's group.

Title: Predicting potato early die using the conditional probability of Verticillium dahliae colony forming units in Michigan commercial potato fields.

Luke showed that the number of Vd colony forming units in subsamples of soil from production fields could be transformed into a conditional probability map for the whole field. The map could then be used to identify regions likely to have significant disease pressure. Spatial heterogeneity in Vd infection pressure was observed, and this could be used to guide decisions about where and when to apply soil fumigants.

3rd Place: Amanda Crook from Dr. Harlene Hatterman-Valenti's group

Title: Marketability and seed production effects from glyphosate drift injury to Red Norland potato.

Amanda looked at the effect of simulated glyphosate drift on appearance and seed piece performance of Red Norland potatoes and showed that exposure at the time of tuber initiation resulted in a decrease in tuber number at harvest and an increase in damaged tubers. Conversely, application of glyphosate during tuber bulking at all but the lowest concentration used resulted in reduced emergence when harvested tubers were used as seed.

2014 Award Winners

1st Place: Laura Markham, Penn State University

Title: Potatoes Can’t Take the Heat: Effects of Cultivar and Processing on Global Metabolite/Nutritional Profiles

2nd Place: Christian T. Christensen, University of Florida

Title: “Breaking Physiological Dormancy in Tubers of Solanum chacoense

3rd Place: Abigail Sido, Penn State University

Title: Purple and White Potatoes, even after Processing, Suppress Colonic Interleukin-6 Expression, a Pro-inflammatory Cytokine, in a Highfat Consuming Pig Model

2013 Award Winners

1st Place: Annie Christine Boucher, Universite de Sherbrooke, QC

Title: New Information on the Historical Introduction of the Golden Nematode in North America

2nd Place: Gabriell Fortin, Universite Laval, QC

Title: Use of a Genotyping-by-Sequencing (GBS) Approach for Marker-Assisted Backcrossing of Resistance to Golden Nematode

3rd Place: Jaebum Park, Cornell University

Title: QTL Analysis of Tetraploid Potato for three Potato Agronomic Traits with SNP Markers

4th Place: Kyle Rak, University of Wisconsin-Madison

Title: Genotype x Storage Environment Interactions and Stability of Potato Chip Color: Implications in Breeding for Cold Storage Chip Quality

5th Place: Brenda Elaine Arnold, Virginia Tech

Title: Identification of Candidate Genes for Self-Compatibility in a Diploid Population of Potato Derived from Parents Used in Genome Sequencing

2012 Award Winners

1st Place: Sridhar Radhakrishnan, Colorado State University

Title "Uncooked and baked purple potatoes suppress oxidative stress and inflammatory markers in high-fat diet consuming pig

2nd Place: Katie M. Larson, Colorado State University

Title: Characterization of Carotenoid Content in Potato Germplasm Utilized by the Colorado Potato Breeding and Selection Program.

3rd Place: Arturo Quintero-Ferrer, University of Idaho

Title: Molecular, serological and biological characterization of a recombinant isolate of PvY from Mexico

4th Place: William H. Buhrig, University of Idaho-Parma

Title: Influence of Ethylene on Skin Color and Appearance of Specialty Potatoes.

2011 Award Winners

1st Place: Jacob Blauer, Washington State University

Title: Changes in ascorbate content of developing tubers relative to transcription of genes in the Smirnoff-Wheeler pathway

2nd Place: Sarah Turner, Texas A&M University

Title: Effect of purple and white potato extracts on prostate cancer development in athymic nude mice.

3rd Place: Sridhar Radhakrishnan, Colorado State University

Title: Purple potato anthocyanins, even after processing, exert anti-cancer properties in vitro and suppress oxidative stress in obese pig.

2010 Award Winners

1st Place: Daniel Zommick, Washington Statue University

Title: Post harvest mottling of Premier Russet tubers may be a consequence of accelerated aging

2nd Place: Elliott Toevs, University of Idaho

Title: Potato identity preservation: attitudes and logistics of reintroducing genetically modified potatoes to the market

3rd Place: Joshua LeMonte, Brigham Young University

Title: Polymer coated urea in potatoes

4th Place: Henry Castleberry, Colorado State University

Title: Development of an experimental design to study pressure flattening in potatoes

5th Place: Christopher Hiles, Washington State University

Title: Defining inseason nitrogen needs to maximize profits from Alturas and Premier Russet

2009 Award Winners

1st Place: Gina Greenway, University of Idaho

Title: Forecasting Organic Potato Demand

2nd Place: Calvin Glaspie, Michigan State University

Title: Tolerance of Potato Mini-tubers to PRE and POST Herbicide Applications

3rd Place (tie): Julien Pompon, University of New Brunswick

Title: The Characterization of Solanum chomatophilum Resistance Mechanism to Aphid Potato Pests

3rd Place (tie): Nicole Nichol, Michigan State University

Title: Evaluation of CBF1 Transgenic Potatoes

4th Place: Jose Ortega, Oregon State University

Title: Premier Russet: A Source of Strain-specific Resistance to Potato Virus Y (PVY)

2008 Award Winners

2nd Place (tie): Andrew Houser, Colorado State University

Title: Development of a greenhouse assay to evaluate potato germplasm for susceptibility to powdery scab

2nd Place (tie): Magnifique Nzaramba, Texas A&M University

Title: ‘Phenolic and glycoalkaloid levels of S. jamesii accessions and their antiproliferative effect on human prostate and color cancer cells in vitro

3rd Place: Juan Rodriguez, North Dakota State University

Title: Infection efficiency of three laboratory methods to inoculate potato tubers with Phytophthora infestans

4th Place (tie): Nicole Nichol, Michigan State University

Title: CBF1 transgenic potatoes studied under drought conditions’

4th Place (tie): Yongfei Zhang, Cornell University

Title: Loci that influence anthocyanin pigmentation of potato tuber flesh

2006 Award Winners

1st Place: Michael Copas, University of Wisconsin​

Title: Influence of compaction and subsoil tillage on soil water movement and potato rooting patterns

2nd Place: Magnifique Nzaramba, Texas A&M University

Title: The influence of production environments on antioxidant activity, phenolics and specific gravity in potato (Solanum tuberosum L.)

3rd Place: Jeffery Davis, University of Minnesota

Title: Identifying and mapping resistance to green peach aphid, Myzus persicae (Sulzer) in potato

4th Place: Mary LeMere, University of Wisconsin

Title: The effects of fumigation, nitrogen fertility, and varietal resistance to early dying (Verticillium dahliae) and early blight (Alternaria solani) on crop health and productivity

5th Place (tie): Diego Fajardo, University of Wisconsin

Title: Species and series boundaries of Solanum series Conicibaccata and phenetically similar species in ser. Piurana (sect. Petota): Morphological data from a field study in Peru

5th Place (tie): Christine Worthington, University of Florida

Title: Effect of polymer coated urea and ammonium nitrate fertilizer on yield & quality of ‘Atlantic’ potato under simulated leaching rainfall events in northeast Florida

2005 Award Winners

1st Place: Lavanya Reddivari, Texas A&M University

Title: Specialty potatoes (Solanum tuberosum) as a source of bioactive compounds to reduce human prostate cancer cell proliferation in vitro

2nd Place: Dennis Atkinson, University of Idaho

Title: Role of seed and soil borne inoculum on the development of Rhizoctonia in potato

3rd Place: Jeffery Davis, University of Minnesota

Title: Identifying resistance to aphids in crosses with somatic fusions of Solanum tuberosum L. and Solanum bulbocastanum

4th Place (tie): Karthikeyan Narayanan, Nova Scotia Agricultural College

Title: Gene expression studies on genetic control of after-cooking darkening in diploid potatoes

4th Place (tie): E.P. Driskill Jr., Washington State University

Title: Sweetening responses to unconventional storage temperature regimes in potato tubers of different maturity

2004 Award Winners

1st Place: Angel Lara-Chavez, University of Minnesota

Title: Sample size for selection of cold chipping genotypes from haploid-species hybrids

2nd Place: Caludia Granda, Texas A&M University

Title: A new approach to reduce the development of acrylamide in potato chips

3rd Place: Sonia Bolvaran, University of Minnesota

Title: Comparison between propagule sources for determining foliar resistance to late blight (P. infestans) in early breeding generations

4th Place: Dimitre Mollov, University of Minnesota

Title: Incidence of PLRV induced tuber net necrosis in potato breeding populations

5th Place: David Esplin, University of Minnesota

Title: Genetic gain from early generation selection for cold chipping from 2x-2x, 2x-4x, 4x-2x, and 4x-4x crosses in potato

2003 Award Winners

1st Place: Mark J. Pavek & RE Thornton

Title: Economic impact of missing and irregularly spaced potato plants.

2nd Place: Christina Rea & James Lorenzen

Title: Use of single nucleotide polymorphisms to map resistance gene analogs in potato.

3rd Place: David L. Esplin & C.A. Thill

Title: Selection for cold chipping genotypes in populations derived by sexual polyploidization.

4th Place (tie): Sandra E. Cantle & G. Wang-Pruski

Title: Identification of cinnamic acid 4- hydroxylase in potato (Solanum tuberosum L.) and its relationship to after-cooking darkening

4th Place (tie): Dimitre S. Mollov & C.A. Thill

Title: Heritability of asyumptomatic expression to potato virus Y.

2002 Award Winners

1st Place: Luis Fernando Reyes, Texas A&M University

2nd Place: Ruofang Zhang, Pennsylvania State University

3rd Place: Ioana Dinu, University of Minnesota

4th Place: Robin Young, University of Manitoba

5th Place: Danielle Posch, University of Minnesota

2001 Award Winners

1st Place: David Zlesak, University of Minnesota

2nd Place: Alexander Johnson, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University

3rd Place: Danielle Posch, University of Minnesota

4th Place: Malay Saha, North Dakota State University

5th Place: Andy Hornbacher, University of Idaho