UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. -- Joanie Yibing Zhou, a student from People's Republic of China and research assistant in Penn State's Intercollege Plant Physiology Program, received the Gerald T. Gentry Award for Excellence in Graduate Research (Biological Sciences category) at Penn State's College of Agricultural Sciences' Annual Research Exhibition on March 16-17.
The award and exhibition, co-sponsored by the college and Gamma Sigma Delta, the honor society for agriculture and agricultural sciences, recognizes students for their research and presentation skills. The $300 award is funded by proceeds from an endowment by Gerald T. Gentry, a commodities trader at the Chicago Board of Trade, who earned a master's degree in agricultural economics from Penn State in 1970.
Zhou's exhibit was titled "Assimilate Partitioning in Miniature Maize Kernels." She uses "miniature 1," a mutant strain of corn that has a modified sugar metabolism and a miniature kernel to study how corn kernels accumulate sugars. "This work may be used eventually to develop a corn plant with increased yields or other desirable qualities," she says.
Zhou is a doctoral candidate in plant physiology. She earned her bachelor's degree in botany in 1990, and master's degree in plant developmental and molecular biology in 1993, both from Peking University in People's Republic of China.
She is a member of Gamma Sigma Delta. She also is a member of the International Christian Fellowship at Penn State.
Zhou credits, among many others, her thesis advisor Daniel Knievel, associate professor of crop physiology, and his family; her American host family, Herb and Dorothy Schmidt; Calvary Baptist Church; and the State College Chinese Alliance Church and International Christian Fellowship for supporting her educational experience. "These families help make foreign students feel at home in the community," she says.
###
EDITORS: For more information, contact Harvey Manbeck at 814-865-4071.
Contacts: Kim Dionis KDionis@psu.edu 814-863-2703 814-865-1068 fax