Theo "Chelsea" Newbold, a doctoral student in Penn State's College of Agricultural Sciences, has been awarded the Foundation for Food and Agriculture Research Fellowship for 2023–26.
The fellowship is focused on professional development and career guidance to foster the next generation of food and agricultural scientists and better prepare participants for a career in STEM — science, technology, engineering and math — and specifically for nontraditional career paths in government and industry outside of academia.
As part of the program, Newbold, who uses the pronouns they/them, will receive a stipend and professional development support through a collaboration between the foundation, North Carolina State University and an industry partner.
For their fellowship, Newbold is sponsored by Pasa Sustainable Agriculture — a nonprofit dedicated to advancing regenerative and equitable agriculture — and the Penn State Department of Plant Pathology and Environmental Microbiology.
Newbold said that their research will address the foundation’s soil health challenge area.
“In collaboration with Pasa, I will study the impact of cover crops on soil health and disease pressure in economically important row crops like corn and soy,” Newbold said. “The project will use long-term biological, physical and chemical soil health data from Pasa, and I will then incorporate sampled plant pathogen and disease severity data from both organic and conventional systems.”
Newbold added that because crop disease relationships with soil health and cover crops is a major research gap in agriculture, they hope their project will allow them to bridge this gap through their partnership with Pasa.
Source: psu.edu
Photo Credit: PennState
Categories: Pennsylvania, Crops, Education, Government & Policy