Team

Amol Nankar

Dr. Amol Nankar’s vegetable breeding program focuses on breeding vegetable crops for stress adaptation (biotic and abiotic), fruit quality, and horticultural traits that are relevant for Georgia and the southeast US.

Dr. Nankar’s areas of breeding interests include pre-breeding, trait introgression, marker-assisted selection, high-throughput phenotyping, and application of integrated omics, cultivar development and release.

Besides research, his extension role is aimed at working with different stakeholders across the vegetable value chain and serving the associated industry by disseminating vegetable breeding and other educational information that could assist the relevant stakeholders.

Dr. Nankar’s UGA Horticulture Profile

Connect with Dr. Nankar: Email

Dr. Deepa Jaganathan

Dr. Jaganathan has significant molecular breeding experience and her areas of expertise include genomics, molecular breeding, quantitative genetics, and genetic engineering. Deepa’s research interests comprise of QTL mapping, NGS analysis, CRISPR/Cas9 gene editing, and gene cloning. Here in Vegetable Breeding program at UGA, Deepa’s research focuses on marker-assisted selection (MAS), genomic selection, and genome editing for disease resistance and fruit quality in sweet pepper and other vegetables.

Connect with Dr. Jaganathan: Email

Noel Thomas

Jessica Gibbs

Jessica is a recent graduate from ABAC with a Bachelor of Science in Biology. She is interested in plant breeding and genetics and all the lab work associated with it!

Connect with Jessica: Email

John Callaway

John is an undergraduate student at The University of Georgia, majoring in Agricultural Business. He is aspiring to pursue a career in agricultural production, with a particular focus on the plantation industry. His interests lie in plant breeding and production management, and he actively gains hands-on experience through UGA’s Vegetable Breeding Program. This involvement allows him to apply knowledge gained during undergraduate courses and apply them in a tangible setting, enhancing his expertise in crop development and agricultural sustainability.

William Railey