My career goal, which I have been working towards throughout my college, is to become a good researcher and extension worker in the field of turfgrass. My research interests include turfgrass physiology and sports turfgrass management. As far as my specific research interests are concerned, I am particularly interested on plant physiology. How the plants react with different stress conditions (drought and temperature) and how they adopt to overcome these stress are always my area of interest. I worked with Dr. Justin Moss for my master degree focusing my research on “Water Use Rate” and “Root Growth Characteristics” of different commercial and experimental bermudagrass cultivars. Besides working on my own project I work with my
colleagues on drought and temperature stress study. In recent years, my PhD work has focused on golf course management, which involve comparing the impact of conventional and alternative cultivation methods on playability and soil physical properties of creeping bentgrass putting green. After my graduation, for my postdoctoral training, I will work with Dr. Charles Fontanier and continue to build on my previous training in turfgrass physiology. My postdoctoral work will focus on identifying morphological and physiological factors affecting sod tensile strength and wear tolerance of warm-season turfgrass. This will provide me with new conceptual and technical training in physiology.
My entire scientific career will focus on development of comprehensive understanding of stress tolerance in turfgrass. My future research will focus in developing low water using and cold hardy warm-season turfgrass cultivars. Drought tolerant and cold hardy cultivars are the needed in future to overcome drought and winter survival. I will also focus my research on sports turf which includes developing good traffic tolerance grass.
This travel grant would alleviate part of my financial burden of attending the conference. As a graduate student, attending the conference this year would assist me in my future research, and provide valuable networking as a professional entering the job market. Giving talk and presenting a poster at annual conference would not only provide me with a platform to introduce my research, but also present the opportunity to incite conversation and discussion between experienced researchers and myself that would be needed to my professional goals
