Graduate Fellowships at the Danforth Center
Graduate fellowships at the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center are competitive awards of one-year support to outstanding plant science PhD students whose research demonstrates great promise for humankind. Thanks to the the funders, endowments are established to allow fellows the opportunity to conduct their research with the guidance of the outstanding principal investigators at the Danforth Center.
These early-career scientists are the leading principal investigators of tomorrow, tackling hunger and preserving natural resources. Learn about the talented award recipients below.
William H. Danforth Graduate Fellowship,
est. 2015
2025 Samantha Nuzzi
In 2025, Samantha is a fifth-year PhD student in the Division of Plant Science at the University of Missouri—Columbia. She completed her Bachelor of Science degree in biochemistry at the University of Florida—Gainesville. At the Danforth Center, Samantha works in the laboratory of Principal Investigator Dr. Tessa Burch-Smith and her thesis focuses on plant intercellular communication.
2024 Sarah Pardi
In 2024, Sarah Pardi was a sixth-year PhD student in Plant and Microbial Biosciences Program at Washington University in St. Louis. A native of the Bay Area, she was previously a McNair Scholar at Loyola Marymount University. At the Danforth Center, Sarah works in the laboratory of Principal Investigator Dmitri Nusinow, PhD. Sarah’s thesis focuses on how plants perceive light. A greater understanding of this process would allow scientists to develop plants that better optimize sunlight capture—helping to grow more food for a growing world.
2023 Ketra Oketcho
As a child in Uganda, Ketra Oketcho showed a keen interest in the science behind the natural world. In 2023, she was a third-year graduate biology student at the University of Missouri - St. Louis. In the labs of Principal Investigators Nigel Taylor, PhD, and Becky Bart, PhD, Ketra is working to understand how cassava, a staple crop in her home country, confers resistance to cassava mosaic disease—a key threat to food security.
2022 Kiona Elliott
In 2023, Elliott earned her PhD in the Plant and Microbial Biosciences Program at Washington University in St. Louis. Her passion is food security. In her work with Danforth Center Principal Investigator Becky Bart, PhD, Elliott focused on investigating the genetic mechanisms underlying cassava susceptibility to Xanthomonas-induced bacterial blight. Her project has the potential to help feed the 500 million people who depend on cassava for their daily calories, as well as enhance the sustainability of agriculture. She is now working in industry.
2021 Diego Cuerda-Gil
Cuerda-Gil was a graduate student at The Ohio State University, from which he received his PhD in late 2021. He worked in the lab of Danforth Center Principal Investigator Keith Slotkin, PhD, which focuses on DNA expression in plant cells. For his project, Diego worked on a synthetic biology approach to tether proteins of interest to an RNA. This research will enable us to understand what different proteins do to the RNA, and the system he created will be used for crop improvement towards feeding a growing world. Diego now works in industry.
2020 Zachary Harris
In 2020, Harris was a member of the lab of Danforth Center Principal Investigator Allison Miller, PhD, where the focus is on how perennial plants respond to dynamic environments. Pursuing his PhD at Saint Louis University, Harris defended his dissertation in 2022 on key features of how long-lived crop species function and adapt, using grapevine as a model system. This research has implications for growing crops in a changing climate. He currently works for the Taylor Geospatial Institute.
2019 Suresh Pokhrel
Pokhrel was a member of the lab of Danforth Center Principal Investigator Blake Meyers, PhD, starting in the fall of 2015. The primary emphasis of the Meyers lab was the analysis of small RNAs in plants. Pokhrel defended his thesis, a study of the roles of small RNAs in male fertility in eudicots and received his PhD in 2021. The mechanism he elucidated is crucial for speeding hybridization in important crops like mustards, tomato, strawberry, flax, and sunflower. He currently works in agriculture.
2018 Maria Sorkin
Sorkin was a PhD student at Washington University in St. Louis and did her doctoral research in the lab of Danforth Center Principal Investigator Dmitri A. Nusinow, PhD. Her dissertation research focused on identifying the protein-protein interactions involved in clock function. Ultimately, this knowledge can be used to manipulate agriculturally relevant, clock-regulated phenotypes, such as flowering time. Maria received her PhD in 2022 and is an organism engineer for Ginkgo Bioworks.
2017 Adam Bray
Bray was a member of the lab of Danforth Center Principal Investigator Chris Topp, PhD, for five years while earning his PhD in Plant Breeding, Genetics, and Genomics from the University of Missouri—Columbia. His dissertation research was focused on dissecting the genetic components that dictate root system architecture in maize. He currently works for Bayer Crop Science as a wheat product development scientist.
2016 Ally (Asaro) Fikas
Ally joined the lab of Danforth Center Principal Investigator Ivan Baxter, PhD, in 2014 while studying at Washington University in St. Louis in the Computational and Systems Biology program. Her work was aimed at developing an understanding of the mechanisms that shape ionomic variation among different environments, information that is especially important for selective breeding. She currently works as a data scientist technical lead at Bayer Crop Science.
2015 Gavriel Matt
Matt was graduate student in the Molecular Genetics and Genomics program at Washington University in St. Louis when he joined the lab of Danforth Center Principal Investigator James Umen, PhD, at the Enterprise Rent-A-Car Institute for Renewable Fuels. For his dissertation, Gavriel conducted research on the evolution of multicellularity in algae. His goal was to better understand the relationship between biomass production and cell growth. He is currently a bioinformatics research scientist at St. Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital.
William T. Kemper Plant Science Fellowship, est. 2025
2025 Olivia Gomez
Olivia Gomez, a fifth-year PhD student in the Plant and Microbial Biosciences program at Washington University in St. Louis was named the inaugural Kemper Fellow in 2025. She completed her Bachelor of Science degree in Botany/Plant Biology at Cornell University. At the Danforth Center, Gomez works in the laboratory of James Umen PhD, and her thesis focuses on explaining phosphate storage in algae.
Help us help early-career scientists
Graduate fellowships are especially critical to attracting and retaining the best minds. Medical research receives significantly more federal and foundation funding, so individual donors can make a substantial difference by investing in plant science. Contact the Development team for more information: phone 314.587.1234 or email development@danforthcenter.org.