UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Hanareia Ehau-Taumaunu, doctoral candidate in the Department of Plant Pathology and Environmental Microbiology in Penn State’s College of Agricultural Sciences, has been selected as the recipient of the Phytobiomes Fellowship for the 2019-20 academic year.
The Phytobiomes Fellowship was established through a collaboration between industry and Penn State in 2018. Its objective is to support doctoral student members of the Penn State Microbiome Center whose proposals specifically outline research that will advance the understanding of phytobiomes. The fellowship will be awarded to one graduate student each year and provides approximately two semesters of funding.
Ehau-Taumaunu’s research focuses on characterizing bacteriocin-mediated antagonism within the plant environment to assess the potential for bacteriocins to act as biological control agents against bacterial plant pathogens.
A key component of Ehau-Taumaunu’s dissertation focuses on developing foliar microbial communities that are suppressive to bacterial pathogens and examining the bacterial composition of such suppressive communities.
“I am very honored and grateful to receive the inaugural Phytobiomes Fellowship to support the upcoming year of my doctoral research,” said Ehau-Taumaunu. “The continual support of the Penn State Microbiome Center for graduate students in phytobiome research fields indicates that my future is bright with a multitude of opportunities. I also could not do this without the encouragement of my adviser, my mentors, fellow graduate students, and my whānau (family).”
About the Penn State Microbiome Center
The goal of the Penn State Microbiome Center is to support transformative, interdisciplinary research in microbiomes by fostering long-term working relationships while simultaneously providing infrastructure and resources needed for increasing diversity and breadth of interdisciplinary microbiome research at Penn State. This includes structured and tacit educational opportunities unique to Penn State.