Graduate Student Fellowships
Barley Coordinated Agricultural Project (CAP)
Graduate Student Fellowships in the Barley Coordinated Agricultural Project (CAP) in translating genomics to barley improvement

Graduate student fellowships are available in the barley CAP for highly-motivated individuals to develop and utilize genomics tools for barley improvement. These are three and one-half year USDA-NRI funded positions. The barley CAP is a community effort of 31 scientists with expertise ranging from genetics/genomics, breeding, pathology, databases, computer science, food science, malt quality, and statistics.

The graduate student fellows will work with a community of barley scientists and focus on these objectives:

(1) Develop a 3,000 marker single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) map of the barley genome. We will use high-throughput technologies to quickly map the barley genome with 3,000 SNP markers.
(2) Develop a web portal containing a database for housing genotype and phenotype data that the barley CAP generates.
(3) Characterize breeding lines from 10 barley breeding programs. We will genotype these lines with 3,000 mapped SNP markers and phenotype these lines for a variety of agronomic, quality and disease resistance traits. These data will be used to understand the haplotype block structure and linkage disequilibrium in the U.S. barley breeding germplasm and to identify haplotype-trait associations.
(4) Utilize the genomics tools to develop superior barley germplasm. We will use haplotype-trait associations to select for superior barley germplasm.

Participating institutions with fellowship opportunities are: University of Minnesota, University of California-Riverside, North Dakota State University, Utah State University, and Montana State University. To apply please send a letter of interest, curriculum vitae and three letters of reference to the scientist and institution(s) of your choice:

Kevin Smith
Department of Agronomy and Plant Genetics
University of Minnesota
St. Paul, MN 55108
Phone: (612) 624-1211
Email: smith376@umn.edu

Brian Steffenson
Department of Plant Pathology
University of Minnesota
St. Paul, MN 55108
Phone: (612) 625-4735
Email: bsteffen@umn.edu

Timothy Close, Department of Botany and Plant Sciences
Stefano Lonardi, Department of Computer Sciences
University of California, Riverside
Riverside, CA 92521
Phone: (951) 827-3318
Email: timothy.close@ucr.edu
Note: we are seeking a student in computational biology/bioinformatics

Tom Blake
Department of Plant Sciences and Plant Pathology
109 Ag Biosciences Bldg
Montana State University
Bozeman, MT 59717
Phone: (406) 994-5055
Email: blake@montana.edu

Richard Horsley
Department of Plant Sciences
North Dakota State University
Fargo, ND 58105-5051
Phone: (701) 231-8142
Email: richard.horsley@ndsu.edu

Dominique Roche
Plants, Soils & Biometeorology
Utah State University
Logan, UT 84321-4820
droche@mendel.usu.edu
Office phone: (435) 797-7214
Cell phone: (435) 770-0197