Principal Investigator
Cecilia McGregor
Cecilia obtained her Undergraduate in Animal Physiology & Genetics and M.S. in Molecular Genetics at the University of Stellenbosch (South Africa) and her Ph.D from Louisiana State University. She has worked on a wide variety of organisms, including fish(!), Proteaceae, maize, potato and sweetpotato. She joined UGA in 2008 and currently focuses on watermelon, squash and bell pepper breeding and genetics.
Lab Members
Alex Luckew (Research Scientist: 2019 – present)
Alex graduated with a B.S. in Crop Sciences from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. He continued his education at Iowa State University receiving two M.S., one in Plant Pathology and one in Plant Breeding and a PhD in Plant Breeding. His previous projects focused on disease resistance breeding, specifically soybean sudden death syndrome. Currently, his research focus is identifying resistance in squash to whiteflies and the viruses they transmit.
Lara Dye (Research Professional: 2024 – present)
Lara graduated from UGA with a B.S. in Biology, and then attended Athens Technical College to attain an A.S. in Dental Hygiene. She worked with plant parasitic nematodes in UGA’s Department of Plant Pathology before becoming a dental hygienist. She is excited to rejoin the world of science with the McGregor Lab and learn more about plant breeding and genetics. She loves plants and her 2 dogs.
Pallavi Rathore (PhD Student: 2024 to present)
Samuel Manthi (PhD Student: 2019 to present)
Pallavi obtained her B.S. in Agriculture with a specialization in Plant Breeding and Genetics from Punjab Agricultural University (India) and M.S. in Plant Sciences with a concentration in Biotechnology from Tennessee State University where she worked on root phenotyping in Soybean and CRISPR/Cas9 vector development. She is currently pursuing her Ph.D and her current research focus is to identify sources of host resistance for anthracnose in watermelon and cucumber, aiming to enhance disease resistance and improve cultivar performance.
Samuel obtained his Bachelor of Education (Science) at the Egerton University (Kenya) and MSC from the Northeast Normal University (Jilin, China). He has worked on a number of plants including Finger millet, Pearl millet, Sorghum, Pigeonpea and Groundnut at the International Crops Research for Arid and Semi-Arid Tropics (I.C.R.I.S.A.T) Nairobi. His current focus is research on Genes controlling fruit size and shape in watermelon.
Jackline Litunya (MS Student: 2024 – present)
Jackline obtained her undergraduate degree in Agricultural Sciences from EARTH University, Costa Rica. She is currently pursuing her Master’s degree and her research is focused on identifying resistance to the whitefly-transmitted viruses in watermelon.
Amelia Boettcher (MS Student: 2023 to present)
Amelia graduated from the University of Florida with a Bachelor’s degree in Plant Science and worked at BASF as a watermelon variety trial assistant, before joining the lab.
Other Team Members
Patrick Gattiker (2022 – present)
Callum McEachron (2023 – present)
Izabella Turner (2024 – present)
Former Lab Members
- Jorge Reyes (Ph.D., graduated May 2023)
- Lincoln Adams (M.S., graduated 2021)
- Katie Sandlin (M.S., graduated 2009)
- Jason Prothro (M.S., graduated 2009)
- Swikriti Pandey
- Samikshya Rijal
- Reeve Legendre
- Jesse Kuzy (Research Technician, 2017-2022)
- Vickie Waters (Research Technician, 2009-2013)
- Yihua Chen (Research Technician, 2013-2017)
- Ayse Topcu (Researcher, 2017-2018; 2021-2022)
- Douglas Vines
- Jake Mayne
- Derrick Ousley
- Matt Li
- Marin Lonnee
- Amaja Andrews
- Joshua Thedford
- Phyllicia Thomas
- Angela Hulsey
- Darrica McDowell
- Shannon Grimm
- Megan Rodriguez
- John Sims
- Jacob Centers
- Ashton Vincent
- Derek Christner
- Wyatt Brooks
- Sydney Smallwood
- Kaelyn Morgan
- Baker Stickley
- Chloe Wilson
- Ingrid Brindle
- Ben Carper
- Wei-Han (Hank) Chen
- Taylor Combs
- Jacqueline Do
- Erin Gnatt
- Preston Harden
- Lillianna Mulvey
- Sam Lopez
- Kristie Le
- Rebekah Williamson
- Emma Casper
- Daniel Powell
- Chase Sherwood
- Jean Yost
- Will Hemphill
- Kristin Adams
- Ruqayah Bhuiyan
- Graf Exum
- Will Groover
- Dalton Haden
- Will Hembree
- Jacob Langley
- Eric Malaney
- Dusty Martin
- Ben McInnes
- Josh Mickey
- Jessica Norton
- Jared Gilstrap
- Allen Ray
- Jeremy Ray
- Angela Riveiro
- Ethan Roberson
- Angela Seibel
- Jarrod Smith
- Maria Thompson
- Grace Yu