The Ohio State University

  This past Sunday (March 18, 2007) Jia Yan received her PhD degree during winter graduation ceremonies in St. Johns arena. Jia’s dissertation was entitled “Effects of Gibberellin 2-Oxidase, Phytochrome B1, and BAS1 Gene Transformation on Creeping Bentgrass Photomorphogenesis Under Various Light Conditions”. Besides her research work into enhancing turfgrass shade tolerance through gene manipulation, she was also the teaching assistant for the introductory turfgrass management, crop science, and landscape plant courses. In addition, she created the Chinese versions of the turf podcasts. Jia is from Maanshan, China where she received her B.S. and M.S. degrees in plant ecology from Nanjing University. Dr. Yan has recently taken a position with Monsanto Corporation in St. Louis, Missouri as a Research Scientist. She will be working in the area of plant molecular breeding for Monsanto. Her advisor was Dr. Karl Danneberger.