Dr. Kumard

Past Students:
Graduate Students (MS)

Joannes Petrus Yuh joined my research group in the fall of 2009 from the University of Buea, Cameroon. Joannes recently presented his research work at 2010 Appalachian Research Forum. His poster presentation won first place award in the category of Natural Sciences and Mathematics. (www.etsu.edu/studentresearch). Joannes has successfully defended his MS thesis and would be graduating in December 2011. He is currentlyworking at Vanderbilt University as a research assistant in a biochemistry lab.

Mir Hossain joined our research group in the fall 2009 from the University of Dhaka, Bangladesh. His research project was to determine if native SABP2 in tobacco plants existed as a monomer or dimer? He successfully defended his MS thesis research and has joined graduate program in biomedical sciences at ETSU (Biomedical Sciences).

Leonard Fai studied subcellular localization of tobacco SABP2 as MS thesis project. Leonard graduated in spring 2011 and moved to University of Kentucky to pursue Ph.D. in Toxicology (www.mc.uky.edu).

LaTonya F. R. Gillespie joined our research group in the fall of 2009 from the Voorhees College, Denmark, South Carolina. She worked for two semester towards her MS in Biology degree and decided to join Dental School.

Diwaker Tripathi graduated in early summer of 2010 and proceeded to Washington State University to pursue Ph.D. in Plant Pathology (plantpath.wsu.edu/). His MS thesis research was published in FEBS Letters (pubmed). He was awarded "2010-11 Outstanding Thesis Award in Math, Science & Technology" by Graduate Council at ETSU. (OutstandingAwards2010-2011)

Alexander Eddo completed MS in Biology at ETSU. He is a laboratory analyst at Intertek, Romford, United Kingdom.

Undergraduate students (BS):

Tazley Hotz, a microbiology major joined my lab when she was as a freshman at ETSU. Tazley has worked on various projects while working in the lab. Tazley was awarded Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) by American Society for Plant Biologists to conduct research in my lab during summer of 2007(honors). Tazley was invited to present her research findings at the "Plant Biology 2008" meeting held in Merida, Mexico (pb2008). Tazley was a McNair Fellow. During summer 2011 she worked on a NSF funded research project in my laboratory. Tazley has graduated from ETSU and has joined "ETSU Quillen college of Medicine" to pursue her MD degree.

Yutika Patel was a chemistry major and graduated from ETSU in spring of 2010. She is headed to England to join Dental school/ Graduate School.

Arianna Ingram, joined my lab as a biology major when she was a freshman. She conducted research for two semesters. Later she changed her major to English and currently has gone abroad to study English literature.

Kajal Patel conducted research in my lab for two semester's and was awarded "Student Faculty collaborative Research Grant" by Honor's College at ETSU to conduct research. She graduated in spring of 2009 and joined Appalachian Pharmacy College. (acpharm.org).

Meng Liu worked in my lab for one semester and was awarded "Student Faculty collaborative Research Grant" by Honor's College at ETSU to conduct research. Has graduated and joined MS program in Public and Allied Health at ETSU.

Qian Sun came as a exchange student form China to complete her BS in Biology at ETSU. She worked for one semester in my laboratory and has graduated from ETSU.

Poonam M. Sheth: Poonam worked in my laboratory as an undergraduate research student. She was awarded "Student Faculty collaborative Research Grant" by Honor's College, ETSU to conduct research in my lab. Poonam graduated from ETSU and at present she is a project coordinator at Microbial insights, Rockville, TN 37853 (www.microbe.com).

John W. Sayne: Establishment of Suspension Cell culture from tobacco leaves and general support to lab activities. John is expected to graduate shortly. He aspires to become a teacher at lone of the area high schools.