Jae Kerstetter.
Congratulations to Jae Kerstetter, a Rutgers doctoral student on receiving a 2024 Northeast Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education (SARE) graduate student grant for their dissertation research.
Titled “Back to Nature: Searching for Novel Sources of Host-Plant Resistance Against Spotted-Wing Drosophila,” their project involves studying the genetic differences between wild and farmed blueberry plants in New Jersey and looking at how these differences affect the plants’ natural defenses and their interactions with insects.
A Ph.D. student at Rutgers from 2022, Jae’s overall research focus is to investigate the genetic variation among wild and domesticated blueberry populations in New Jersey. They’re working with Cesar Rodriguez-Saona, Extension Specialist, who heads the Entomology Research and Extension Program at Rutgers Marucci Blueberry and Cranberry Research and Extension Center in Chatsworth, New Jersey
Rutgers Entomology graduate students have a strong tradition of earning these USDA awards.
#Rutgers Excellence
